Pandora's Lab Q2

[Emily]

DATA, DATA, AND MORE DATA! 2 Questions on Data!

I found that this book brought up a lot of good points about how data can get misconstrued or ignored (either by professionals or the public). While open data efforts have really been beneficial to research and academia there is still a mindset of "publish or perish" in public health and research in general. Sometimes this mindset can cause discontent between professionals working in the same fields making collaboration and even constructive criticism (just think about the peer review process) hard to foster.

Q1: How do you think better data/ research sharing practices could prevent the misuse of data specifically in relation to each topic of Pandora's Lab?

Q2: How do you think that as professionals we can maintain trust with the public while being transparent that sometimes a research study could be wrong? Or that a conclusion from one study may not be the ultimate "fix"?

[Stephanie]

I agree, there is still the mindset of publish or perish in academia as we have recently seen with Brian Wansink from Cornell University. There is so much pressure to publish that it takes away from the point of research-to test hypotheses and learn from the data.

Q1: I think if there was more communication and individuals working within the same field had more opportunities to share their experiences, it would help improve data and research overall. This could also have improved the "expert" trap we read about in Pandora's lab, as well as with eugenics. The challenge here is that there are so many professional societies and not all individuals are members of all of them, so it's hard to make a connection. This is often the case with large study topics-like cancer, weight management, etc. I work within weight management as a Registered Dietitian and I am part of a listserv that shares great ideas, studies and resources, but it's only available for members of this group, which makes it challenging to insure others have this information to use.

Q2: I think we need to help the public recognize that because one study showed a promising result, doesn't mean it's recommended. We know as public health professionals, that studies need to be replicated to help show causality and associations-we need to improve this understanding with the general public as well. I think being transparent can help build trust within the public, to help them understand that we make mistakes as well (I mean, we are all human after all).