Hi all,
nice to meet you digitally. I am Niccolò Tempini, an information systems and science and technology studies scholar based in Exeter, UK. My specialty is in the social study of data and computation: looking at practices, organisational innovations, methods, and epistemic standards linked to the use and development of information technology. Despite forays in mobile and public administration infrastructure studies, I have been almost entirely dedicated to the study of biomedical data and computing technology.
I am introducing myself to you as I am developing an ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council) application, to be fully submitted in a couple of weeks time (I am sorry this is so late notice), aimed at studying machine learning application development and implementation in health contexts.
What might be interesting is that the project is aimed at developing a ‘methodological toolkit’ to better account for social and situational factors in the development and real-world/routine implementation of ML tech developed by researchers. This would leverage from observations I would acquire through established analytical frameworks from the social sciences (ethnomethodology one of them), it would revisit established ‘soft’ methodologies for problem design, and it would be co-developed with fieldwork collaborators. Recently I have also been awarded a Turing Fellowship at the Alan Turing Institute, the UK’s national institute for data science, so now the application will involve more of the ATI’s networks.
At the moment I am looking for leading organisations/teams/projects interested in collaborating on this, that I could visit to gather views on the local ML development practices and experiences, and that I could relate to, to co-produce the main proposition of the project, a methodology for anticipating and integrating crucial features of diverse social contexts that shape ML implementation in real world contexts of use. Somehow I did not know about OHDSI until yesterday, when a colleague pointed me to it. I am so impressed by the potential to converge with the interests of some of the members.
If you would like to scope the idea further and see whether there could be mutual interest in collaborating, I would love to explore this with those of you whom this is of interest. I am happy to brief you about the project in a couple of paragraphs if it is of interest, and to answer any question you may have.
I would be grateful if you could share your thoughts when you have time, and if you have any availability to discuss this. Unfortunately, time factor is pressing.
My email is n.tempini@exeter.ac.uk
Hope to hear from you.
Niccolò
Portuguese Medicines and Health Products Authority (aka Infarmed), where I develop drug utilization studies and policies impact evaluations using primarily drug reimbursement claims 
.