scholarly journals Does health informatics have a replication crisis?

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (8) ◽  
pp. 963-968 ◽  
Author(s):  
Enrico Coiera ◽  
Elske Ammenwerth ◽  
Andrew Georgiou ◽  
Farah Magrabi

Abstract Objective Many research fields, including psychology and basic medical sciences, struggle with poor reproducibility of reported studies. Biomedical and health informatics is unlikely to be immune to these challenges. This paper explores replication in informatics and the unique challenges the discipline faces. Methods Narrative review of recent literature on research replication challenges. Results While there is growing interest in re-analysis of existing data, experimental replication studies appear uncommon in informatics. Context effects are a particular challenge as they make ensuring replication fidelity difficult, and the same intervention will never quite reproduce the same result in different settings. Replication studies take many forms, trading-off testing validity of past findings against testing generalizability. Exact and partial replication designs emphasize testing validity while quasi and conceptual studies test generalizability of an underlying model or hypothesis with different methods or in a different setting. Conclusions The cost of poor replication is a weakening in the quality of published research and the evidence-based foundation of health informatics. The benefits of replication include increased rigor in research, and the development of evaluation methods that distinguish the impact of context and the nonreproducibility of research. Taking replication seriously is essential if biomedical and health informatics is to be an evidence-based discipline.

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-57
Author(s):  
Rizqa Raaiqa Bintana ◽  
Putri Aisyiyah Rakhma Devi ◽  
Umi Laili Yuhana

The quality of the software can be measured by its return on investment. Factors which may affect the return on investment (ROI) is the tangible factors (such as the cost) dan intangible factors (such as the impact of software to the users or stakeholder). The factor of the software itself are assessed through reviewing, testing, process audit, and performance of software. This paper discusses the consideration of return on investment (ROI) assessment criteria derived from the software and its users. These criteria indicate that the approach may support a rational consideration of all relevant criteria when evaluating software, and shows examples of actual return on investment models. Conducted an analysis of the assessment criteria that affect the return on investment if these criteria have a disproportionate effort that resulted in a return on investment of a software decreased. Index Terms - Assessment criteria, Quality assurance, Return on Investment, Software product


Author(s):  
Audrey L. Michal ◽  
Yiwen Zhong ◽  
Priti Shah

AbstractToday’s citizens are expected to use evidence, frequently presented in the media, to inform decisions about health, behavior, and public policy. However, science misinformation is ubiquitous in the media, making it difficult to apply research appropriately. Across two experiments, we addressed how anecdotes and prior beliefs impact readers’ ability to both identify flawed science and make appropriate decisions based on flawed science in media articles. Each article described the results of flawed research on one of four educational interventions to improve learning (Experiment 1 included articles about having a tidy classroom and exercising while learning; Experiment 2 included articles about using virtual/augmented reality and napping at school). Experiment 1 tested the impact of a single anecdote and found no significant effect on either participants’ evidence evaluations or decisions to implement the learning interventions. However, participants were more likely to adopt the more plausible intervention (tidy classroom) despite identifying that it was unsupported by the evidence, suggesting effects of prior beliefs. In Experiment 2, we tested whether this intervention effect was driven by differences in beliefs about intervention plausibility and included two additional interventions (virtual reality = high plausible, napping = low plausible). We again found that participants were more likely to implement high plausible than low plausible interventions, and that evidence quality was underweighed as a factor in these decisions. Together, these studies suggest that evidence-based decisions are more strongly determined by prior beliefs than beliefs about the quality of evidence itself.


2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-56
Author(s):  
Mouna Abidi ◽  
Md Saidur Rahman ◽  
Moses Openja ◽  
Foutse Khomh

Nowadays, modern applications are developed using components written in different programming languages and technologies. The cost benefits of reuse and the advantages of each programming language are two main incentives behind the proliferation of such systems. However, as the number of languages increases, so do the challenges related to the development and maintenance of these systems. In such situations, developers may introduce design smells (i.e., anti-patterns and code smells) which are symptoms of poor design and implementation choices. Design smells are defined as poor design and coding choices that can negatively impact the quality of a software program despite satisfying functional requirements. Studies on mono-language systems suggest that the presence of design smells may indicate a higher risk of future bugs and affects code comprehension, thus making systems harder to maintain. However, the impact of multi-language design smells on software quality such as fault-proneness is yet to be investigated. In this article, we present an approach to detect multi-language design smells in the context of JNI systems. We then investigate the prevalence of those design smells and their impacts on fault-proneness. Specifically, we detect 15 design smells in 98 releases of 9 open-source JNI projects. Our results show that the design smells are prevalent in the selected projects and persist throughout the releases of the systems. We observe that, in the analyzed systems, 33.95% of the files involving communications between Java and C/C++ contain occurrences of multi-language design smells. Some kinds of smells are more prevalent than others, e.g., Unused Parameters , Too Much Scattering , and Unused Method Declaration . Our results suggest that files with multi-language design smells can often be more associated with bugs than files without these smells, and that specific smells are more correlated to fault-proneness than others. From analyzing fault-inducing commit messages, we also extracted activities that are more likely to introduce bugs in smelly files. We believe that our findings are important for practitioners as it can help them prioritize design smells during the maintenance of multi-language systems.


Author(s):  
А.О. РЕНЗЯЕВ ◽  
О.П. РЕНЗЯЕВ ◽  
С.Н. КРАВЧЕНКО ◽  
Р.В. КРЮК

Исследованы прочностные и физико-механические свойства оболочки рапса с точки зрения ее разрушения и удаления. Установлено, что наиболее рациональным является двухстадийный способ обрушивания: 1-я стадия – на вальцовых мельницах, 2-я – на центробежной обрушивающей машине. Определены параметры центробежной обрушивающей машины для обеспечения минимальной необходимой линейной скорости 10,81 м/с: угол наклона отбойной пластины (90 ± 2)°, частота вращения барабана (2400 ± 150) об/мин. Установлено, что правильно подобранные условия и угол, под которым происходит удар, позволяют значительно снизить количество не до конца обрушенного семени и содержание расколотого ядра. При этом при свободном ударе об отбойную пластину под углом, отличным от 88–91°, или подаче недостаточно равномерного потока семян значительно увеличивается содержание необрушенных семян. На разрушение 1 кг семян необходимо затратить 58,45 Дж. Таким образом, по расчетным данным, для семян рапса диаметром 1,5 мм частота вращения барабана должна находиться в диапазоне от 2221 до 2565 об/мин при ударе семени под углом 90°. Диаметр семян рапса, выращиваемого в Сибирском регионе, составляет от 0,8 до 1,8 мм. Установлено, что подсушивание семян рапса в течение 30–40 с при температуре 100°С позволяет увеличить эффективность разрушения оболочки до полного ее отделения от ядра рапса. Представленные результаты позволяют повысить качество очистки семян рапса от оболочки и улучшить качественные характеристики получаемого масла, облегчить последующие технологические процессы получения пищевого масла, снизить затраты на рафинацию и дезодорацию на 2%. The strength and physico-mechanical properties of the shell of rapeseed in terms of its destruction and removal are investigated. It is established that the most rational is a two-stage method of seed hulling: the 1st stage – on roller mills, the 2nd – on a centrifugal hulling machine. The parameters of the centrifugal hulling machine to provide the minimum required linear speed of 10,81 m/s are defined: the angle of inclination of the turnback plate (90 ± 2)°, the rotational speed of drum (2400 ± 150) RPM. It is established that the correctly selected conditions and the angle at which the impact occurs, can significantly reduce the amount is not completely hulling seed and the substance of the split nucleus. At the same time, with a free impact on the turnback plate at an angle different from 88–91°, or the supply of an insufficiently uniform flow of seeds, the content is not completely hulling seed increases significantly. On hulling of 1 kg of seeds it is necessary to spend 58,45 J. Thus, according to the calculated data, for rape seeds with a diameter of 1,5 mm, the rotational speed of drum should be in the range from 2221 to 2565 RPM when the seed is struck at an angle of 90°. The diameter of rapeseed grown in the Siberian region ranges from 0,8 to 1,8 mm. It was found that drying of rapeseed for 30–40 s at a temperature of 100°C, can increase the efficiency of destruction of the shell to its complete separation from the core of rapeseed. The presented results make it possible to improve the quality of cleaning of rape seeds from the shell and improve the quality characteristics of the obtained oil, facilitate the subsequent technological processes of obtaining edible oil, reduce the cost of refining and deodorization by 2%.


Author(s):  
Valentyna Fostolovych ◽  
Tetiana Botsian

The permeability of all spheres of both economic activity and human life with digital technologies encourages the search for new marketing ideas necessary for the implementation of the product (goods, works and services).  Today's consumer has become more demanding both to the product itself and to the ways of presenting it.  Immersive technologies are becoming one of the tools that contribute to the formation of competitive advantages, especially the organization of business in the field of entertainment, as one of the areas of additional income in the field of hotel and restaurant services and marketing activities of enterprises.  Digital transformation leads to the search for new initiatives that will be a tool to meet customer needs and a way to reach wider market segments.  The process of digitalization must first be integrated into the economy of the whole state and the enterprise as a whole, and in all processes of production of goods, works and services.  Digital-transformation of domestic enterprises will help to obtain additional competitive advantages both in the domestic market and in the international market.  The formation of competitive advantages is associated not only with the maximum involvement of digital technologies in business.  It is important to choose such technologies that will be most effective in the implementation of a particular type of enterprise, under certain conditions and in a particular environment. The expediency of using immersive technologies as a marketing tool is undeniable.  However, in addition to tools, immersive technologies are important as a means of education, a separate milestone in the field of entertainment, a means of psychological influence and more.  That is, the impact of this tool on the level of competitiveness of the enterprise in the environment of the demanding consumer is manifested: in the form of reducing the cost of attracting the client; active covert promotion through their use; improving the quality of the presented product (goods, works, services); ensuring the elasticity of the enterprise to the needs and requirements of consumers; the transition of the enterprise to an innovative type of development and active digitalization.


2018 ◽  
Vol 239 ◽  
pp. 03005
Author(s):  
Lidia Shkurina ◽  
Eugenia Maskaeva ◽  
Stanislav Maskaev

the authors reviewed the quality of operational work of railway transport in the cost management system, presented methods for assessing the impact of the quality of rolling stock on the current costs of transportation activities, considered the issues of the impact of the quality of operational work on the formation of freight market demand and of financial result of the transport company - the owner of infrastructure and traction rolling stock, represented methods of assessing financial and economic efficiency of improving the quality of operational work for the company - a participant of the freight market.


Author(s):  
Alice Etim ◽  
David N. Etim ◽  
Jasmine Scott

In 2016, the U.S. Government health expenditures reached $3.35 trillion and the cost per person stood at $10,345. Health is seen as impacting both one's quality of life and finances. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) (2008 - 2016) brought the issue of cost to the forefront for all people especially those in the health disparate communities. Advances in health informatics coupled with new approaches to healthcare delivery may hold promise for this large industry in the USA that critically needs to be cost effective in order to sustain itself. This paper reports a study that investigated importance of health, mobile health (m-Health) and telemedicine awareness along with its adoption in a health disparate community that has one of the Historical Black Colleges & Universities (HBCUs) in the country. The findings were that, all participants owned a mobile (cell) phone with smart features. Although a large number them indicated that their health was very important to them, there was lack of awareness and adoption of m-Health and telemedicine.


Author(s):  
Zegbeh C. Jallah ◽  
Pamela Moalli ◽  
Andrew Feola ◽  
William Barone ◽  
Stacy Palcsey ◽  
...  

Pelvic organ prolapse (POP) is a multifactorial disorder characterized by the descent of the pelvic organs into the vaginal canal. This disorder is associated with decreased quality of life, and even depression, yet 50% of women over the age of fifty are living with POP. The cost associated with the repair of POP exceeds one billion dollars annually, in the United States alone. This rather exorbitant figure includes the cost of surgery performed for symptom management, but does not include strategies which address the underlying cause of the disorder for which there are none. Because failure rates of native tissue repairs are as high as 30%, vaginal mesh is increasingly used in the surgical repair of POP. The procedure aims to reinforce the fibromuscular layer of the vagina and the paravaginal attachments, thus providing structural integrity to the weakened native tissues. However, the use of mesh is limited by mesh-related complications including exposure, erosion, pain contraction and infection.


2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 514
Author(s):  
Isabelle Katherinne Fernandes Costa ◽  
Gabriela De Sousa Martins Melo ◽  
Thalyne Yuri de Araújo Farias Dias ◽  
Francis Solange Vieira Tourinho ◽  
Bertha Cruz Enders ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Objective: to evaluate the available evidence on the impact of pain on daily life of people with venous ulcers. Method: this is a study of integrative review followed the following steps: establishing the hypothesis and objectives, establishing criteria for inclusion or exclusion of articles, defining the information to be extracted from the selected items, results analysis, discussion and presentation of results. To select the articles we used three databases, Medline, Cinahl and ISI Web of Knowledge and the sample consisted of 18 articles. Results: in the works that were analyzed showed evidence that the pain of venous ulcers influences the patient's daily life. Among people with venous ulcers, we found that the pain is a major aggravating to decreased quality of life, especially as regards the loss of mood, sleep disturbance, social isolation and loss of physical mobility. Conclusion: The pain of the wound can lead to a huge impact on the daily life of a person and, as such, the need of each patient must be acknowledged and considered in a holistic manner. Descriptors: venous ulcers; quality of life; pain; nursing.      RESUMOObjetivo: avaliar as evidências disponíveis sobre a influência da dor na vida diária da pessoa com úlcera venosa. Método: trata-se de um estudo de revisão integrativa obedeceu às seguintes etapas: estabelecimento da hipótese e objetivos; estabelecimento de critérios de inclusão e exclusão de artigos; definição das informações a serem extraídas dos artigos selecionados; análise dos resultados; discussão e apresentação dos resultados. Para a seleção dos artigos utilizou-se três bases de dados, Medline, Cinahl e Isi Web Of Knowledge e a amostra constituiu-se de 18 artigos. Resultados: nos trabalhos que foram analisados evidenciamos que a dor da úlcera venosa influencia na vida diária do paciente. Dentre as pessoas com úlcera venosa, verificamos que a dor é um dos grandes agravantes para a diminuição da qualidade de vida, principalmente no que diz respeito a perda do humor, distúrbios do sono, isolamento social e perda da mobilidade física. Conclusão: a dor da ferida pode levar a um enorme impacto na vida de uma pessoa diariamente e, como tal, a necessidade de cada paciente deve ser reconhecida e considerada de maneira holística. Descritores: úlcera venosa; qualidade de vida; dor; enfermagem.RESUMENObjetivo: evaluar la evidencia disponible sobre el impacto del dolor en la vida cotidiana de las personas con úlceras venosas. Método: se trata de un estudio de revisión integradora seguido los siguientes pasos: el establecimiento de la hipótesis y objetivos, el establecimiento de los criterios para su inclusión o exclusión de los artículos, la definición de la información que se extrae de los elementos seleccionados, la análisis de resultados, discusión y presentación de resultados. Para seleccionar los artículos que utilizaron tres bases de datos, Medline, CINAHL y el ISI Web of Knowledge y la muestra estuvo constituida por 18 artículos. Resultados: en las obras que fueron analizados mostraron evidencia de que el dolor de las úlceras venosas influye en la vida diaria del paciente. Entre las personas con úlceras venosas, se encontró que el dolor es una de las principales agravantes de disminución de la calidad de vida, especialmente en lo que respecta a la pérdida del estado de ánimo, trastornos del sueño, aislamiento social y pérdida de movilidad física. Conclusión: el dolor de la herida puede causar un gran impacto en la vida cotidiana de una persona y, como tal, la necesidad de cada paciente debe ser reconocida y considerada en forma integral. Descriptores: úlceras venosas; calidad de vida; dolor; enfermería.


2016 ◽  
Vol 34 (7_suppl) ◽  
pp. 109-109
Author(s):  
Andrea Eisen ◽  
Jasmin Soobrian ◽  
Ashley Tyrrell ◽  
Clement Li ◽  
Derek Muradali ◽  
...  

109 Background: Disease Pathway Management (DPM) is used by Cancer Care Ontario (CCO) to set priorities for cancer control, plan cancer services, and improve the quality of care in Ontario by promoting standardization. The DPM approach applies a framework to examine the performance of the entire system from prevention to end of life care, and to identify any gaps within the system. In 2014, DPM began its breast cancer pathway initiative by mapping the patient journey, depicting evidence-based best practice along the breast cancer care continuum, identifying where further guidance is needed for clinical decision making, and identifying gaps in quality of care and performance measurement indicators. Objective: To evaluate the impact of DPM on quality assessment of breast cancer care in Ontario. Methods: DPM convened a multidisciplinary breast cancer working group (WG) of 40 experts from across Ontario. The WG held 12 meetings and used guidelines developed by CCO’s Program in Evidence Based Care (or other sources as needed) to generate pathways for the prevention, screening and diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up care for breast cancer. The pathways were used as a framework to review the existing inventory of provincial breast cancer quality indicators, and to identify areas where evidence based guidance is needed. The pathways were subjected to an extensive review process before publication. Results: The expert WG identified 28 priority areas, including opportunities to develop guidance in areas where it is lacking (e.g. role of perioperative breast MRI; indications for contralateral prophylactic mastectomy) and system barriers that may hinder optimal care (e.g. biomarker assessment). The WG also used the pathways as a framework for evaluating performance measurement indicators by mapping 48 existing quality indicators for breast cancer to the pathway. Conclusions: The CCO DPM Breast Cancer pathways facilitated a province-wide, multidisciplinary process to promote quality standards, to identify gaps and overlaps in performance and quality measurement, and to recommend additional indicators more relevant to the quality of breast cancer care in Ontario.


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