Findings from a Panel Discussion on Evaluation Methods in Medical Informatics.

Healthcare systems are challenged by increasing costs. Digital technology can help to combat this trend. Evaluation of these technologies is uncommon or incomplete. Scholars have called for a standardized and holistic evaluation. We provide a synthesis of an online panel on medical informatics (MI) and stipulate a discussion on new guidelines for medical informatics project evaluations. The panel consisted of presentations and a discussion. The presentations gave the participants an overview of evaluation methods currently used in different medical informatics domains and their shortcomings. The presenters highlighted new evaluation methods such as a roadmap for economic analysis of eHealth projects and the German Digital Healthcare Act methods. Participants discussed the shortcomings of RCTs and methods that need to be included in eHealth evaluation and called for new evaluation methods. The discussion showed weaknesses of the currently used methods and underlined the need for a new, holistic evaluation standard for MI.

Investigating Ethical, Legal, and Socio-Technical Barriers of Medical Data Donation and Developing a Concept to Address Them - A Research Protocol.

Medical data are being generated in large quantities. However, these data are rarely used beyond their primary purpose. Big data methods to medical data offer the opportunity to transform healthcare. The healthcare industry has been a lot less successful than other industries in applying these new tools. Main reasons are privacy concerns and the fact that medical data in Germany are scattered across institutions. The method of data donation can offer a solution. The first aim of the proposed Medical Data Donation Enabler (MADE) project is to investigate ethical, legal and socio-technical barriers to data donation. The second aim is to develop a concept of a medical data donation process model that addresses the barriers by providing a data donation process model. The process model concept created through MADE could be provided for this purpose.