APA submitted comments in response to a National Institutes of Health (NIH) request for information (PDF, 198KB)opens in new window regarding the agency’s Strategic Plan on Data Science, 2023–28opens in new window. NIH sought input from stakeholders on a subject very meaningful to psychological scientists: improving the infrastructure that helps scientists collect and share good data. As the largest source of federal funding for psychological science, NIH policies are influential in shaping the science infrastructure and regulatory environment.
APA’s comments noted the plan’s emphasis on issues related to data collection, harmonization and reuse regarding social determinants of health and environmental determinants of health. The strategic plan stated that to further advance NIH’s goal to bridge the gap between health care settings and applied and clinical research, NIH will strengthen the use of ontologies with vocabularies and terminologies and exchange standardopens in new window. The association recommended that NIH should highlight the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) ontologies project. Before data can be harmonized, definitions of concepts, e.g. social support, need to be harmonized, and OBSSR is working to address this need in the behavioral and social sciences by asking for input from subject matter experts when developing funding announcements and working with the National Academy of Sciences. Rigorous and reproducible behavioral science requires clear and consistent definitions of social and behavioral phenotypes, outcomes, and intervention components to allow effective communication between scientists and across scientific disciplines. This is an ideal opportunity for NIH’s influence to advance behavioral science.
APA concurred with the plan’s emphasis on training. This includes cross-training between data scientists, clinical researchers, and nurses engaged in research; training on consent practices and ethical use of data that go beyond legal and regulatory requirements with special considerations for linked/merged data and data from underrepresented communities; and trainings on data sharing, management, transparency, provenance, and data quality for clinical research.
The association also commented that the ways artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming health care delivery will affect the available types and quality of research data. The NIH draft plan emphasized that innovations in AI will have significant implications for collecting and sharing data, “yet, challenges remain in creating transparent and explainable datasets and models.” APA agreed that there is a great need for ethical principles and frameworks for developing and using AI in biomedical research. Additionally, given that the data science plan rarely mentioned mental health, APA highlighted needs in the mental health space, especially in connection with AI technologies such as the development of evidence-based guidelines and regulations regarding the use of AI to assist in the diagnosis and treatment of mental and behavioral health conditions.
Members of APA’s Board of Scientific Affairs and experts from APA’s Division 46 (Psychology and Media) provided comments and references to inform the response. The association responds to many requests for information from federal agencies to ensure psychological science is well represented so that psychological knowledge and data can inform their actions. To provide agencies with the best and most current psychological knowledge, APA relies on its members’ expertise to inform these responses and often reaches out to divisions and governance groups for help. If you see one of these calls for comments and your expertise is a good fit, we hope you will answer, so APA can leverage the best psychological science to shape funding priorities and policies.
For more information, contact Pat Kobor.