Editorial: Dimensions of Health Information Quality

Frontiers in Public Health

article

Pietro Ghezzi¹  Elizabeth Ford¹ 

[1] Brighton and Sussex Medical School, United Kingdom

关键词: health records;    patient data;    websites;    social media;    literacy;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpubh.2020.00223

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

The data-information-knowledge-wisdom hierarchy, which we find in nuce in Eliot’s poem, isa well-known theoretical model where with data and information we build knowledge about asubject, and then being able to apply this knowledge is called wisdom (2). One key issue inmaking use of information is its quality, and this Research Topic covers various aspects of healthinformation quality.A context in which the term information is used in medicine relates to biomedical data usedfor research purposes, and this can be in the form of electronic health records, self-tracked data(e.g., with mobile apps), and online discussion sites. Ford et al. explore an important aspect of theuse of “big data” represented by electronic health records, indicating ways to address the issue ofcompleteness of the information recorded. Their paper analyses the use of a Bayesian approach toaddress the issue of missingness in electronic health records. If information quality can be an issuein electronic health records produced by health professionals, this is an even greater problem inthe case of patient-generated data. Several digital tools now allow tracking health-related activities,fitness, and wellbeing. West et al. present a systematic review of the literature on self-tracked data.The study discusses the importance of data quality in the context of their use in clinical practiceto diagnose or manage conditions and conclude that, in the short term, their use in managingconditions is probably more realistic than their diagnostic use. Online discussion sites can alsorepresent an important source of data health research and Smith et al., in their Opinion article,describe the promises and limitations of this approach.

【 授权许可】

CC BY