How automation can help alleviate the budget crunch in public health research

P.A. Muennig

American Journal of Public Health, 2015, vol. 105, issue 9, e19-e22

Abstract: In an era of severe funding constraints for public health research, more efficient means of conducting research will be needed if scientific progress is to continue. At present major funders, such as the National Institutes of Health, do not provide specific instructions to grant authors or to reviewers regarding the cost efficiency of the research that they conduct. Doing so could potentially allow more research to be funded within current budgetary constraints andreduce waste. I describe how a blinded randomized trial was conducted for $275000 by completely automating the consent and data collection processes. The study used the participants' own computer equipment, relied on big data for outcomes, and outsourced some costly tasks, potentially saving $1 million in research costs.

Keywords: automation; budget; controlled study; economics; financial management; human; information processing; methodology; national health organization; organization and management; procedures; public health service; randomized controlled trial; research; statistics and numerical data; United States, Automation; Budgets; Data Collection; Efficiency, Organizational; Humans; National Institutes of Health (U.S.); Public Health Administration; Research; Research Design; Research Support as Topic; United States (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2015.302782_9

DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2015.302782

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