Cresswell Kathrin, Rigby Michael, Medlock Stephanie, Prgomet Mirela, Ammenwerth Elske
The University of Edinburgh, Usher Institute, Edinburgh, United Kingdom.
Keele University, School of Social, Political and Global Studies and School of Primary, Community and Social Care, Keele, United Kingdom.
Yearb Med Inform. 2024 Aug;33(1):58-63. doi: 10.1055/s-0044-1800719. Epub 2025 Apr 8.
Information technology-enabled precision prevention is a relatively new approach designed to improve population health. It forms an organic development linking principles of optimizing added value from health-related information technology and data systems with clinical aspirations to add longer-term problem prevention to immediate illness treatment. It includes drawing on information technology to identify persons at risk for developing certain conditions and then developing targeted behavioral and psychosocial approaches to modifying the behaviors of individuals or specific groups. We here discuss evaluation challenges associated with information technology-enabled precision prevention approaches to facilitate the development of an empirical evidence base. Challenges associated with measuring the impact of information technology-enabled precision prevention initiatives include considerations surrounding the relevance and fit of external data sources, the accuracy of prediction models, establishing added benefits of preventative activities, measuring pre-post outcomes at individual and population levels, and considerations surrounding cost-benefit analysis. Challenges associated with assessing processes of information technology-enabled precision prevention initiatives include the quality of data used to create underlying data models, exploring processes not necessarily related to each other, evolving social and environmental determinants of health and individual circumstances, the evolving nature of needs and interventions over time, and ethical considerations. If these challenges are attended to in evaluation activities, this will help to ensure that information technology-enabled approaches to precision prevention will have a positive impact on individual and population health.
信息技术支持的精准预防是一种旨在改善人群健康的相对较新的方法。它形成了一种有机发展，将从健康相关信息技术和数据系统中优化附加值的原则与临床目标联系起来，以便在即时疾病治疗的基础上增加长期问题预防。它包括利用信息技术识别有患特定疾病风险的人群，然后制定有针对性的行为和心理社会方法来改变个人或特定群体的行为。我们在此讨论与信息技术支持的精准预防方法相关的评估挑战，以促进实证证据基础的发展。与衡量信息技术支持的精准预防举措的影响相关的挑战包括围绕外部数据源的相关性和适用性、预测模型的准确性、确定预防活动的额外益处、在个体和人群层面衡量前后结果以及围绕成本效益分析的考虑。与评估信息技术支持的精准预防举措的过程相关的挑战包括用于创建基础数据模型的数据质量、探索不一定相互关联的过程、不断变化的健康社会和环境决定因素及个体情况、需求和干预措施随时间的不断变化的性质以及伦理考量。如果在评估活动中关注这些挑战，这将有助于确保信息技术支持的精准预防方法对个体和人群健康产生积极影响。
