Health Data Science

Author(s):  
Olaf Dammann ◽  
Benjamin Smart
Keyword(s):  
2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (01) ◽  
pp. 59-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. J. Scott ◽  
M. Rigby ◽  
E. Ammenwerth ◽  
J. McNair ◽  
A. Georgiou ◽  
...  

Summary Objectives: To set the scientific context and then suggest principles for an evidence-based approach to secondary uses of clinical data, covering both evaluation of the secondary uses of data and evaluation of health systems and services based upon secondary uses of data. Method: Working Group review of selected literature and policy approaches. Results: We present important considerations in the evaluation of secondary uses of clinical data from the angles of governance and trust, theory, semantics, and policy. We make the case for a multi-level and multi-factorial approach to the evaluation of secondary uses of clinical data and describe a methodological framework for best practice. We emphasise the importance of evaluating the governance of secondary uses of health data in maintaining trust, which is essential for such uses. We also offer examples of the re-use of routine health data to demonstrate how it can support evaluation of clinical performance and optimize health IT system design. Conclusions: Great expectations are resting upon “Big Data” and innovative analytics. However, to build and maintain public trust, improve data reliability, and assure the validity of analytic inferences, there must be independent and transparent evaluation. A mature and evidence-based approach needs not merely data science, but must be guided by the broader concerns of applied health informatics.


Author(s):  
Yi Liu ◽  
Benjamin Elsworth ◽  
Pau Erola ◽  
Valeriia Haberland ◽  
Gibran Hemani ◽  
...  

Abstract Motivation The wealth of data resources on human phenotypes, risk factors, molecular traits and therapeutic interventions presents new opportunities for population health sciences. These opportunities are paralleled by a growing need for data integration, curation and mining to increase research efficiency, reduce mis-inference and ensure reproducible research. Results We developed EpiGraphDB (https://epigraphdb.org/), a graph database containing an array of different biomedical and epidemiological relationships and an analytical platform to support their use in human population health data science. In addition, we present three case studies that illustrate the value of this platform. The first uses EpiGraphDB to evaluate potential pleiotropic relationships, addressing mis-inference in systematic causal analysis. In the second case study, we illustrate how protein–protein interaction data offer opportunities to identify new drug targets. The final case study integrates causal inference using Mendelian randomization with relationships mined from the biomedical literature to ‘triangulate’ evidence from different sources. Availability and implementation The EpiGraphDB platform is openly available at https://epigraphdb.org. Code for replicating case study results is available at https://github.com/MRCIEU/epigraphdb as Jupyter notebooks using the API, and https://mrcieu.github.io/epigraphdb-r using the R package. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.


2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (01) ◽  
pp. 59-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. J. Scott ◽  
M. Rigby ◽  
E. Ammenwerth ◽  
J. McNair ◽  
A. Georgiou ◽  
...  

Summary Objectives: To set the scientific context and then suggest principles for an evidence-based approach to secondary uses of clinical data, covering both evaluation of the secondary uses of data and evaluation of health systems and services based upon secondary uses of data. Method: Working Group review of selected literature and policy approaches. Results: We present important considerations in the evaluation of secondary uses of clinical data from the angles of governance and trust, theory, semantics, and policy. We make the case for a multi-level and multi-factorial approach to the evaluation of secondary uses of clinical data and describe a methodological framework for best practice. We emphasise the importance of evaluating the governance of secondary uses of health data in maintaining trust, which is essential for such uses. We also offer examples of the re-use of routine health data to demonstrate how it can support evaluation of clinical performance and optimize health IT system design. Conclusions: Great expectations are resting upon “Big Data” and innovative analytics. However, to build and maintain public trust, improve data reliability, and assure the validity of analytic inferences, there must be independent and transparent evaluation. A mature and evidence-based approach needs not merely data science, but must be guided by the broader concerns of applied health informatics.


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 261-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niels Peek ◽  
Pedro Pereira Rodrigues
Keyword(s):  

Author(s):  
Sebastian Porsdam Mann ◽  
Julian Savulescu ◽  
Barbara J. Sahakian

Advances in data science allow for sophisticated analysis of increasingly large datasets. In the medical context, large volumes of data collected for healthcare purposes are contained in electronic health records (EHRs). The real-life character and sheer amount of data contained in them make EHRs an attractive resource for public health and biomedical research. However, medical records contain sensitive information that could be misused by third parties. Medical confidentiality and respect for patients' privacy and autonomy protect patient data, barring access to health records unless consent is given by the data subject. This creates a situation in which much of the beneficial records-based research is prevented from being used or is seriously undermined, because the refusal of consent by some patients introduces a systematic deviation, known as selection bias, from a representative sample of the general population, thus distorting research findings. Although research exemptions for the requirement of informed consent exist, they are rarely used in practice due to concerns over liability and a general culture of caution. In this paper, we argue that the problem of research access to sensitive data can be understood as a tension between the medical duties of confidentiality and beneficence. We attempt to show that the requirement of informed consent is not appropriate for all kinds of records-based research by distinguishing studies involving minimal risk from those that feature moderate or greater risks. We argue that the duty of easy rescue—the principle that persons should benefit others when this can be done at no or minimal risk to themselves—grounds the removal of consent requirements for minimally risky records-based research. Drawing on this discussion, we propose a risk-adapted framework for the facilitation of ethical uses of health data for the benefit of society. This article is part of the themed issue ‘The ethical impact of data science’.


2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (01) ◽  
pp. 231-234
Author(s):  
Sébastien Cossin ◽  
Rodolphe Thiébaut ◽  

Objectives: To introduce and summarize current research in the field of Public Health and Epidemiology Informatics. Methods: PubMed searches of 2019 literature concerning public health and epidemiology informatics were conducted and the returned references were reviewed by the two section editors to select 14 candidate best papers. These papers were then peer-reviewed by external reviewers to allow the Editorial Committee a curated selection of the best papers. Results: Among the 835 references retrieved from PubMed, two were finally selected as best papers. The first best paper leverages satellite images and deep learning to identify remote rural communities in low-income countries; the second paper describes the development of a worldwide human disease surveillance system based on near real-time news data from the GDELT project. Internet data and electronic health records are still widely used to detect and monitor disease activity. Identifying and targeting specific audiences for public health interventions is a growing subject of interest. Conclusions: The ever-increasing amount of data available offers endless opportunities to develop methods and tools that could assist public health surveillance and intervention belonging to the growing field of public health Data Science. The transition from proofs of concept to real world applications and adoption by health authorities remains a difficult leap to make.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (04) ◽  
pp. 751-770
Author(s):  
Meghan Reading Turchioe ◽  
Annie Myers ◽  
Samuel Isaac ◽  
Dawon Baik ◽  
Lisa V. Grossman ◽  
...  

Abstract Objectives As personal health data are being returned to patients with increasing frequency and volume, visualizations are garnering excitement for their potential to facilitate patient interpretation. Evaluating these visualizations is important to ensure that patients are able to understand and, when appropriate, act upon health data in a safe and effective manner. The objective of this systematic review was to review and evaluate the state of the science of patient-facing visualizations of personal health data. Methods We searched five scholarly databases (PubMed, Embase, Scopus, ACM Digital Library [Association for Computing Machinery Digital Library], and IEEE Computational Index [Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Computational Index]) through December 1, 2018 for relevant articles. We included English-language articles that developed or tested one or more patient-facing visualizations for personal health data. Three reviewers independently assessed quality of included articles using the Mixed methods Appraisal Tool. Characteristics of included articles and visualizations were extracted and synthesized. Results In 39 articles included in the review, there was heterogeneity in the sample sizes and methods for evaluation but not sample demographics. Few articles measured health literacy, numeracy, or graph literacy. Line graphs were the most common visualization, especially for longitudinal data, but number lines were used more frequently in included articles over past 5 years. Article findings suggested more patients understand the number lines and bar graphs compared with line graphs, and that color is effective at communicating risk, improving comprehension, and increasing confidence in interpretation. Conclusion In this review, we summarize types and components of patient-facing visualizations and methodologies for development and evaluation in the reviewed articles. We also identify recommendations for future work relating to collecting and reporting data, examining clinically actionable boundaries for diverse data types, and leveraging data science. This work will be critically important as patient access of their personal health data through portals and mobile devices continues to rise.


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