Quality assessment can be addressed by requiring minimum standards and supporting documentation for all data to be posted on the website. This approach, as opposed to peer review processes, will allow users to determine if the data are appropriate for their needs. Visits to the Clearinghouse have been tracked and have dramatically increased in number and geographic diversity since its inception. The relationship with our subject matter is the most controversial. The risk assessor must accept the reality of the world and realize that that reality matters.
Risk assessment is the product of social processes that are inherently fallible.
It is often necessary to rearrange the pieces of our observations into new theoretical structures. This has a direct relationship to the Clearinghouse because models and concepts of data analysis may be different in the future. It is important to keep our observations in the database as free from model-laden issues as possible and close to the elemental observations such that data can be used in ways that the original investigator may never have intended. Each step in the pathway to analyze data provides an opportunity to make measurements and interventions. Relationships with other disciplines is important since risk analysis crosses the boundaries of subject matter.