The critical and complex challenge of dementia: Why governments must use big data to respond to the challenges of dementia

Dementia is a global challenge to all levels of government in every country. Many governments have developed policy frameworks to deal with the dementia challenge and these policies deal with issues related to the care for those with dementia and their caregivers, as well as support for efforts to identify strategies for prevention and cure. Governments can play an important role in efforts to create big data resources through their regulatory and legislative roles related to privacy, data access, data standardisation, and broader economic and trade policy, through their role as a provider and funder of health and social services, and as the largest supporters of research. Governments need to be clear around the importance of big data, expand and support the organisation of data to reflect the fact that care for dementia is bigger than just health care services, and ensure that big data are used across our health, social care, and research sectors to their greatest advantage.