Tell me, Big Data, how many years do I have to live?

Scientists launch a project to predict life expectancy

Vyacheslav Golovanov, GeekTimes based on the materials of the University of East Anglia: Could a computer tell you when your time is up?

Programmers, doctors and statisticians from the East Anglian University are launching a large-scale project in which databases on the health status of British citizens will be used to predict human life expectancy. Predictions will take into account chronic diseases and methods of their treatment.

On the Internet, you can often stumble upon entertainment sites that "predict" the date of death on request. Scientists tend to build their forecasts on strictly scientific data. And although not all people will be able to dare to ask how long they have left to live (even if this is an approximate estimate), scientists are confident that the project will bring practical, financial and medical benefits to the state.

After analyzing a large amount of data, it will be possible to try to assess the impact of certain drugs used in the treatment of certain diseases on life expectancy. The project will also help to plan people's retirement more effectively.

The task is very difficult – a huge amount of data has been collected, they are quite complex and difficult to analyze. But scientists remain optimistic and hope to identify key factors affecting mortality and life expectancy, including both lifestyle and medical factors.

The lead researcher, Professor Elena Kulinskaya, says: "People's life expectancy is increasing all over the world. We want to develop software tools suitable for predicting life expectancy, using big data collected in the usual way by medical institutions."

In Britain, recent pension reforms have allowed citizens to manage their pensions more freely, but to improve the efficiency of this process, it would be very useful to estimate the projected life expectancy.

The five-year project was made possible thanks to funding of £800,000 received from the Institute of Actuaries (Institute and Faculty of Actuaries). This is one of three research programs that received funding from the institute (English actuary – an expert statistician of an insurance institution, so their interest in this project is clear - VM).

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru  04.04.2016