  Apache HBase, a mainstay of the emerging Hadoop ecosystem, is a NoSQL
key-value and column family hybrid database which, unlike a traditional RDBMS,
is intentionally designed to scalably host large, semistructured, and
heterogeneous data. Prime examples of such data are biosignals which are
characterized by large volume, high volatility, and inherent
multidimensionality. This paper reviews how biomedical engineering has recently
taken advantage of HBase, with an emphasis over cloud, in order to reliably
host cardiovascular and respiratory time series. Moreover, the deployment of
offline biomedical analytics over HBase is explored.
