Resources and applications of public biomedical data

This review provides a representative overview of public biomedical databases and their use in biomedical research. These resources are categorized into four major types according to their dominant data content: public health databases, clinical databases, comprehensive cohort databases, and omics databases. For each category, we briefly summarize their main characteristics and access pathways. At the application level, we outline their major uses in population health monitoring, clinical research, predictive modeling, and biomarker discovery. At the methodological level, we summarize two complementary research strategies commonly used with these resources, namely, hypothesis-driven and data-driven research. We further discuss the main challenges in using public biomedical databases and emphasize broad principles for rigorous and appropriate use. Overall, public biomedical databases have become an important infrastructure for modern research. This review aims to provide a reference framework for researchers to more efficiently and reliably utilize these resources for scientific exploration and clinical translation.