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The Use and Interpretation of Quasi-Experimental Studies in Medical Informatics

2005; Oxford University Press; Volume: 13; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1197/jamia.m1749

1527-974X

Anthony D. Harris, Jessina C. McGregor, Eli N. Perencevich, Jon P. Furuno, Jingwei Zhu, Douglas E. Peterson, Joseph Finkelstein,

Biomedical and Engineering Education

Quasi-experimental study designs, often described as nonrandomized, pre-post intervention studies, are common in the medical informatics literature. Yet little has been written about the benefits and limitations of the quasi-experimental approach as applied to informatics studies. This paper outlines a relative hierarchy and nomenclature of quasi-experimental study designs that is applicable to medical informatics intervention studies. In addition, the authors performed a systematic review of two medical informatics journals, the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association (JAMIA) and the International Journal of Medical Informatics (IJMI), to determine the number of quasi-experimental studies published and how the studies are classified on the above-mentioned relative hierarchy. They hope that future medical informatics studies will implement higher level quasi-experimental study designs that yield more convincing evidence for causal links between medical informatics interventions and outcomes.