Table of Contents
Overview of Atlas Evidence Ingestion
Evidence is the backbone of the Atlas precision measures platform. The HumanFirst Applied Sciences team ingests high-quality evidence that power decision-making when deploying precision measures in studies. The process of evidence sourcing and triaging allows for new information to be added to Atlas daily to ensure we have the most comprehensive and up-to-date database possible. This article provides more information on our evidence ingestion practices, criteria, and sources.
Standard Criteria for Ingestion
Atlas is constantly evolving. The list below provides general guidelines for evidence that is prioritized and what is excluded or deprioritized. As the catalog grows and expands, these criteria may change.
The evidence in Atlas is based on quality thresholds to ensure well-informed decision-making on the use of digital technologies, which take into account the following:
Criteria for Inclusion:
☑️ Type: Study types aligned with the EVIDENCE checklist created in collaboration with Digital Medicine Society. We prioritize verification, analytical validation and clinical validation studies in the V3 framework.
🚗 Specificity: Clear inclusion of a make/model of a technology (e.g. Fitbit Charge) versus broad categories (e.g. wrist-worn accelerometer)
📅 Recency: Recency of publication: priority is given to publications in the last 3-5 years
⚕️ Relevance: Relevance of study population: priority is given to evidence done in clinical populations with specified medical conditions (Parkinson’s Disease, Atrial Fibrillation, etc.) above those in niche or industry-specific populations (construction workers, high-performance athletes, etc.)
🤝 Sponsorship
Clinical trial sponsor: priority to given to industry sponsored trials.
Criteria for Deprioritization or Exclusion:
☑️ Type: Non-peer reviewed evidence (e.g. pre-prints)
🌱 Emerging Technology: Unspecified and custom-built technologies are not searchable from Atlas, but our Applied Sciences team captures this information internally (e.g. a publication report on a custom algorithm) in order to support our service offerings.
🔭 Scope: No clear indication of collecting measures with a DHT, Digital Therapeutics (DTx), Point-of-care testing, survey-based assessments, surgically-implanted tech, technology that does not provide a novel measurement (e.g. ePROs or Ecological Momentary Assessments)
🧪 Systematic Reviews or Meta-Analyses: Our team internally reviews systematic reviews and meta-analyses and prioritizes ingesting the single studies referenced, rather than displaying the reviews themselves. This allows a clearer understanding of which technologies captured which measures.
Atlas was created to ensure that customers have a highly-curated body of evidence to reference as they evaluate the use of digital measurement technologies. For that reason, it would not give you the same results as a solution such as PubMed that is designed for broad systematic reviews of literature.
Requesting Evidence Ingestion
Our goal is to ensure the information in Atlas is as relevant to users' research as possible, and feedback from Atlas users allows the HumanFirst team to continue prioritizing the right evidence. This section provides information for how you can request additional information to be added to Atlas.
Requesting Ingestion of Partially-ingested Evidence
To provide our users with access to evidence as soon as possible, we will add evidence with its linked technology while the Applied Sciences team finishes the full analysis on measurements.
These partially ingested pieces of evidence will have information on the Medical Condition, year published, and the technologies used. If you are interested in a specific piece of evidence or a group of evidence, click the 'Request Ingestion' button, and our team will prioritize the full ingestion of that batch of evidence so you can complete your research.
Requesting Ingestion of Additional Evidence
If there is evidence that you are unable to find and believe it should be listed in Atlas, you can also request ingestion of additional evidence.
Providing identifier(s) for the evidence to be considered for ingestion into Atlas will help the HumanFirst team to review the evidence to determine its eligibility. Not all requests may be fulfilled, but our team will respond with a determination within 2 business days.
If a request is eligible, the duration of ingestion may vary depending on volume and complexity, but we aim to fully ingest requested evidence within 10 business days of the request.
If you are looking for Advanced Features for evidence or have questions, get in touch with us at [email protected]
Evidence Sources
The Feasibility Studies Database from the Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative (CTTI) served as the early foundation of Atlas.
Our team utilizes PubMed, Google Scholar, Semantic Scholar, the Digital Medicine Societies Endpoint Library, Clinicaltrials.gov, and the FDA regulatory databases.