Health Researchers Are Far Behind Private Industry When It Comes to Automation

The National Institutes of Health, the largest funder of science research, has experienced funding cuts even as the number of scientists has grown significantly. University laboratories are closing, faculty positions are being cut, and less life- saving research is being conducted. Perhaps even more damaging, researchers are spending considerably more time writing grants, and much less time actually doing research. A paper by Peter Muennig, MD, MPH, associate professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, notes that more efficient means of conducting research will be needed if scientific progress is to continue. Findings will be published online in the American Journal of Public Health.
 
“Research protocols have changed very little even as the economy as a whole has realized large gains in productivity through automation,” said Muennig. “Many techniques for automating public health research already exist – they just are not used in the same way that they are in private industry.” As a proof of concept, Muennig totally automated a research project, completing the project for under $300,000, that otherwise might have been budgeted at $1.2 million.
 
All phases of the project were automated, including enrolling the participants, administering the intervention, and collecting the data. The experiment relied heavily on the participants’ own computers and on big data sources, including insurance billing data, for the collection of the results.
 
“The literature on research efficiency and management is sparse, so hopefully our results will serve as a call for researchers to think more about ways in which they can reduce their budget footprint with the National Institutes of Health, facilitate reform of grant-making processes, and pave the way for a rethinking of institutional review board protocols such that the use of automated systems can be more readily accommodated,” said Muennig. “There is a market failure in the research industrial complex, and government needs to step in to provide incentives to researchers to take risks and do things in new and innovative ways.”
 
The project was funded by the National Institutes of Health, grant R21HD071561-01.

About Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health

Founded in 1922, Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health pursues an agenda of research, education, and service to address the critical and complex public health issues affecting New Yorkers, the nation and the world. The Mailman School is the third largest recipient of NIH grants among schools of public health. Its over 450 multi-disciplinary faculty members work in more than 100 countries around the world, addressing such issues as preventing infectious and chronic diseases, environmental health, maternal and child health, health policy, climate change & health, and public health preparedness. It is a leader in public health education with over 1,300 graduate students from more than 40 nations pursuing a variety of master’s and doctoral degree programs. The Mailman School is also home to numerous world-renowned research centers including ICAP (formerly the International Center for AIDS Care and Treatment Programs) and the Center for Infection and Immunity. For more information, please visit www.mailman.columbia.edu.