Thursday, May 3, 2012

Why Research Should Be 'Hacked'


From the article: "Australian researchers are calling for the open sharing of clinical trial data in the medical research community, saying it would be instrumental in eliminating bottlenecks and duplication, and lead to faster and more trustworthy evidence for many of our most pressing health problems. Moreover, hackers should be role models for freeing up access to the "source code" of clinical trials -- patient-level data -- the researchers from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) argue in a commentary published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.  Hackers revolutionised the software industry by countering the economic and cultural motivations that drove closed source software and disengagement from user needs."

See also
Dunn, A. G., R. O. Day, K. D. Mandl, and E. Coiera. "Learning from Hackers: Open-Source Clinical Trials."  Sci. Transl. Med. 4, 132cm5, 2012.