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Short abstract:

Big data analytics have come to be heralded as a radically novel approach to public health. In this ethnographic case study of a research consortium modelling developmental risk, we uncover where tension and convergence appear in research combining data-driven and evidence-based repertoires.

Long abstract:

Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is a dominant paradigm organizing the production and translation of knowledge in public health. Within this approach epidemiological evidence generated in randomized-controlled trials (RCTs) provides the ‘gold standard’ for public health interventions in at-risk target groups (Timmermans & Berg 2003). In recent years big data analytics have come to be heralded as offering a radically novel approach to public health research and practice. Variably known as ‘personalized prevention’ or ‘precision public health’ this approach uses aggregate data from multiple domains to arrive at personalized risk-profiles for disease and intervention outcomes (Hoeyer 2019). Proponents have argued that this data-driven public health obviates the need for key tenets of EBM, including sampling quality, hypothesis-generation, and causal inference. Traditional public health scientists have, however, been skeptical of these claims, arguing for the continued relevance of EBM criteria and emphasizing the need for mutual collaboration (Mooney & Pejaver 2018). In spite of this on-going discussion, few studies have looked at the ‘trading zones’ (Gallison 1997) that appear in research collaborations between these two approaches to public health. In this study we use the notion of ‘repertoires’ put forward by Ankeny & Leonelli (2016) to uncover how researchers deal with tensions between data-driven and evidence-based repertoires of public health research, asking how they craft convergence between the two approaches. Our analysis is grounded in an ethnographic case study of a large-scale research consortium engaged in modelling early childhood developmental risk, bringing together data-scientists, public health researchers and professionals in childhood preventative care.