Clinical Research Informatics: Contributions from 2024

Summary

Objectives: To summarize key contributions to research in Clinical Research Informatics (CRI) and to select the best papers published in 2024.

Method: A bibliographic search using a combination of MeSH descriptors and free-text terms on CRI was performed using PubMed, followed by a double-blind review to select a list of candidate best papers to be then peer-reviewed by external reviewers. After peer-review ranking, a consensus meeting between the three section editors and the editorial team was organized to finally conclude on the selected two best papers.

Results: Among the 1417 papers returned by the search, published in 2024, that were in the scope of the various areas of CRI, the full review process selected two best papers. The first best paper investigates how to identify and mitigate group biases—such as subgroup underrepresentation—in computational phenotyping. The second-best paper addresses group bias in clinical trials by examining how restrictive eligibility criteria and enrollment challenges affect patient representativeness at both the population and subgroup levels. This year's survey paper is a scoping review related to digital health and environmental sustainability, highlighting the urgent need to embed sustainable practices across the technology lifecycle and the critical regulatory gaps in addressing environmental impacts.

Conclusions: The literature relevant to CRI in 2024 highlights key themes including bias and representativeness, quality and interoperability, and advances in phenotyping as well as real-world evidence extraction and generation.