​Journal’s 100,000 Download Milestone Reflects Growing Appetite for Open Science

Journal’s 100,000 Download Milestone Reflects Growing Appetite for Open Science

eGEMs spreads promising scientific approaches for critical issues such as cancer care

Washington (07/19/16) – AcademyHealth announced today that its peer-reviewed open access journal eGEMs has surpassed 100,000 paper downloads since its inception in 2013. This readership milestone reflects the growing interest in open science using big health data to improve healthcare and health.

“All the communities we work with, whether health services research, clinical research informatics, medicine, or behavioral health, are shifting the paradigm of traditional research - using their data to support new discoveries and promote strategies to achieve the triple aim of better health and better care at lower cost.” said eGEMs Editor-in-Chief Erin Holve, Ph.D., M.P.H., M.P.P., a senior director at AcademyHealth. “eGEMs fills a critical role by providing open access to seminal manuscripts focused on the challenges of implementing new methods, data, and governance needed to build learning health systems.”

A key benefit for open science is the ability to spread promising scientific approaches rapidly in a more open and transparent environment—both to accelerate innovation and to reduce redundancy. The White House’s Cancer Moonshot initiative has embraced this philosophy by prioritizing enhanced data sharing as a means to advance cancer care. eGEMs has published several papers with a topical focus on cancer.

One such study, conducted by researchers at Kaiser Permanente Institute for Health Research, describes a new algorithm that more accurately identifies patient populations with cancer history who would not necessarily be found through a tumor registry alone. By using additional data from chemotherapy files, inpatient and outpatient claims, researchers were able to more accurately identify patients with cancer history who should be screened so that potential cancer can be identified earlier. The authors found that 47 percent of the patients detected by their algorithm would not have been identified through tumor registries alone.

Once cancer is identified, it can be difficult to follow patients through their care because treatment is provided over a long time period and across multiple systems. In another eGEMs study, researchers discovered that linking data across health systems and analyzing it longitudinally can provide a better picture of the factors that may account for some of the potential differences in a patient's use of services. Researchers found that women seen at both an academic center and a community center had similar-length initial care episodes, but more frequently had multiple episodes and longer observation periods. These findings point to opportunities for greater care coordination across delivery systems, and strategies to optimize personalized medicine.

“Studies like these highlight the role of eGEMs in providing a space for rigorous research that gets at the core of what’s working or not working in our health system and why,” said Holve. “We’re incredibly proud to facilitate a forum that supports and advances this critical research.”

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About eGEMs
eGEMs (Generating Evidence & Methods to improve patient outcomes) is a peer-reviewed, open access journal that seeks to accelerate research and quality improvement using electronic health data. The EDM Forum launched eGEMs in 2013, and the journal has since published more than 100 papers featuring cutting-edge projects from leaders in the field. eGEMs is led by an editorial board of experts from across the country and is a premier journal for approaches to redesigning the health system, including methods, interoperability, and governance. Visit the eGEMs website and follow us on Twitter to learn more about the journal, how to submit a manuscript, or to serve as a reviewer.

The EDM Forum is supported by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), Grant 1U18HS022789-01.

About AcademyHealth

AcademyHealth is a leading national organization serving the fields of health services and policy research and the professionals who produce and use this important work. Together with our members, we offer programs and services that support the development and use of rigorous, relevant and timely evidence to increase the quality, accessibility, and value of health care, to reduce disparities, and to improve health. A trusted broker of information, AcademyHealth brings stakeholders together to address the current and future needs of an evolving health system, inform health policy, and translate evidence into action. Learn more at www.academyhealth.org and follow us on Twitter @AcademyHealth.