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Data Decontextualization

Meaning

The detrimental process in clinical informatics where raw physiological or hormonal data is stripped of its essential temporal, environmental, or personal context during collection, transmission, or analysis, leading to potentially inaccurate or misleading clinical interpretations. In endocrinology, this often occurs when a single, isolated hormone measurement is interpreted without considering the time of day, the individual’s menstrual cycle phase, or recent stressor exposure, which are all critical contextual factors for accurate diagnosis. Decontextualization severely compromises the utility of personalized medicine data.