Should biomedical research be like Airbnb?

Abstract

The thesis presented here is that biomedical research is based on the trusted exchange of services. That exchange would be conducted more efficiently if the trusted software platforms to exchange those services, if they exist, were more integrated. While simpler and narrower in scope than the services governing biomedical research, comparison to existing internet-based platforms, like Airbnb, can be informative. We illustrate how the analogy to internet-based platforms works and does not work and introduce The Commons, under active development at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and elsewhere, as an example of the move towards platforms for research.

Fig 1. Discrete suppliers and consumers and associated platforms supporting the scholarly workflow.

While presented as a linear path for simplicity, in reality, it is more a network of interactions.

Fig 2. Example platforms currently supporting biomedical research.