IN THE foreseeable future, information in all sorts of worldwide databases will be linked together and will be a treasure trove of information.
A doctor who needs information to treat a patient with a rare cancer, for instance, can tap on medical journals, hospital records and even insurance records to tell his patient what can be done for him, which hospital has the most experience at it, and how much it may cost him to treat.
Policy-makers can, at any one point in time, take an overall view of a population's job status and earnings, and see if its new social welfare regulations are effective.
