Evaluation: salvation or nemesis of medical informatics?

Computers in Biology and Medicine
Jochen R Moehr

Abstract

The currently prevailing paradigms of evaluation in medical/health informatics are reviewed. Some problems with application of the objectivist approach to the evaluation of real-rather than simulated-(health) information systems are identified. The rigorous application of the objectivist approach, which was developed for laboratory experiments, is difficult to adapt to the evaluation of information systems in a practical real-world environment because such systems tend to be complex, changing rapidly over time, and often existing in a variety of variants. Practical and epistemological reasons for the consequent shortcomings of the objectivist approach are detailed. It is argued that insistence on the application of the objectivist principles to real information systems may hamper rather than advance insights and progress because of this. Alternatives in the form of the subjectivist approach and extensions to both the objectivist and subjectivist approaches that circumvent the identified problems are summarized. The need to include systems engineering approaches in, and to further extend, the evaluation methodology is pointed out.

References

Feb 23, 1990·JAMA : the Journal of the American Medical Association·R A Greenes, E H Shortliffe
Jul 1, 1995·Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA·J G McDaniel
Jan 1, 1994·Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA·W W SteadE E Abola
Mar 1, 1997·International Journal of Medical Informatics·J H van Bemmel

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Citations

Mar 30, 2002·Computers in Biology and Medicine·James G Anderson
Aug 12, 2003·International Journal of Medical Informatics·Elske AmmenwerthUlrich Mansmann
Jan 23, 2009·BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making·Jonathan P DeshazoFredric M Wolf
Jun 3, 2004·International Journal of Medical Informatics·Elske AmmenwerthUNKNOWN HIS-EVAL Workshop Participants
Sep 17, 2013·Computers in Biology and Medicine·Fabien CardinauxMark S Hawley
Jul 26, 2008·BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making·Sara UrowitzKevin J Leonard
Jan 16, 2008·Health Information Management : Journal of the Health Information Management Association of Australia·Leila ShahmoradiHamid Haghani
Sep 11, 2016·JMIR MHealth and UHealth·Quynh PhamJoseph A Cafazzo
Sep 12, 2002·Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA·James G Anderson

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