Intro:  I'm Tanesha Nicole and this is Ask A Scientist.  I'm here with Dr. Gary Gibbons, the Director of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and today we're discussing data science. 
TN: Dr. Gibbons, what is data science? 
GG: Data science is the approach to analyzing large amounts of health data, that enables us to make better predictions and decisions to take better care of the patient. 
TN: What is considered "health data"? 
GG: When you go into the doctor's office, they take your blood pressure, they measure how fast your heart is beating, how fast you're breathing, what your weight is.  That's all health data. 
TN: How do data scientists use this information? 
GG: They work in collaborative partnership with many people in the health systems, like clinicians. By using the techniques of computer science, we can actually teach computers, to learn in ways that they can help doctors better diagnose diseases. 
Outro: For more on data science, visit nhlbi.nih.gov