The recent increased suicide rate in the U.S. military has received widespread academic and media attention (Nock et al., 2013). “Big data” has been defined as large, complex, and linkable information (Khoury & Ioannidis, 2014) that can be used to investigate such changes in incidence at a population level. “Big health data” can revolutionize the future of epidemiological research, and this commentary discusses a specific example of how it can be used to progress suicide research.