Question

What are indexes/indices in relation to healthcare? How are they similar or different from data sets?

Answer 1

An index is a physical structure that stores the values for a specific column in a table. An index can be used to extract specific information from data and access records within a table more quickly without having to scan the whole table. Index is basically used to point to data and are physical structure.

In the healthcare and other sectors both the terms indexes/indices are used for as a plural form of the word "index" and in some cases these terms can refer to more than one index. Indexes/indices are the pronouns used instead of the noun index.

A data set is a collection of related, discrete things of related data that might be gotten to independently or in mix or oversaw in general substance. An Index can be made up of one or more columns of a table and each index maintains a list of values within that field that are sorted in ascending or descending order. A data set is sorted out into some kind of data structure. In a database, for instance, a data set may contain a gathering of business data (names, compensations, contact data, deals figures, et cetera). Indexes cannot be seen by users, but they are just used to speed up the queries and improve the performance of a database application.

Reference:

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-ind2.htm