Replication studies and diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies are critical to advance the impact of biomedical and health informatics

In this Editorial, I highlight 2 critical issues for advancing the impact of the science and application of biomedical and health informatics methods, processes, and tools: replication studies and diversity, equity, and inclusion. In a previous article inJournal of the American Medical Informatics Association, Coiera et al1 asked if health informatics had a replication crisis and concluded that “taking replication seriously is essential if biomedical and health informatics is to be an evidence-based discipline.” In this issue, Coiera and Tong2 assess the frequency, fidelity, and impact of replication studies in the clinical decision support system (CDSS) literature. They identified CDSS replications across 28 health and biomedical informatics journals, assessed fidelity to the original study using 5 categories (identical, substitutable, in-class, augmented, out-of-class) and an innovative framework comprising 7 domains (investigators, method, population, intervention, setting, comparator, and outcome [IMPISCO]). Only 12 of 4063 publications retrieved from their search strategy were identified as actual replications; 6 related to one computer-based order entry study and replicated but which did not reproduce the findings of the original study. The authors conclude that “attention to replication should improve the efficiency and effectiveness of CDSS research” and call for characterization of core CDSS principles that require replication, identification of past repl...
Source: Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association - Category: Information Technology Source Type: research