The DARTH initiative: Promoting the Use of Open-Source Software in Medical Decision Making

Open-source software (OSS) has gained significant popularity across many academic disciplines such as statistics and engineering. There have been many developments and exhibitions of the use of OSS in health decision sciences (HDS), but certainly not enough. Some of the most popular models used in HDS are being implemented in either domain-specific or proprietary software. There are many advantages to this approach, but there are also significant drawbacks, namely high entry costs, lack of transparency and a fragmented modeling approach. The Decision Analysis in R for Technologies in Health (DARTH) initiative is a multi-institutional, multi-university collaborative effort comprised of scholars who have a passion for transparent and open-source solutions to decision analysis in HDS. This meeting will highlight the benefits of OSS, the research advancements and educational initiatives currently available in decision analysis using OSS and will foster discussion around the many exciting ways in which OSS can be used to advance the field of HDS.