Counterintuitive results from observational data: a case study and discussion

The finding of an association between increased pain and improved outcomes was unexpected and clinically counterintuitive. In an increasingly digitised age of medical big data, such results are likely to become more common. The reliability of such counterintuitive results must be carefully examined....

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Doty, Erik (Author), Stone, David J (Author), McCague, Ned (Author), Celi, Leo Anthony G. (Author)
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Medical Engineering & Science (Contributor)
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMJ, 2020-03-25T03:45:19Z.
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Online Access:Get fulltext
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100 1 0 |a Doty, Erik  |e author 
100 1 0 |a Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Medical Engineering & Science  |e contributor 
700 1 0 |a Stone, David J  |e author 
700 1 0 |a McCague, Ned  |e author 
700 1 0 |a Celi, Leo Anthony G.  |e author 
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520 |a The finding of an association between increased pain and improved outcomes was unexpected and clinically counterintuitive. In an increasingly digitised age of medical big data, such results are likely to become more common. The reliability of such counterintuitive results must be carefully examined. We suggest several issues to consider in this analytic process. If the data is determined to be valid, consideration must then be made towards alternative explanations for the counterintuitive results observed. Such results may in fact indicate that current clinical knowledge is incomplete or not have been firmly based on empirical evidence and function to inspire further research into the factors involved. 
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773 |t 10.1136/bmjopen-2018-026447 
773 |t BMJ open