Glossary of commonly used terms in the field of health data research - developed by the EU project HealthyCloud (original) (raw)

Kariotis, T., Ball, M., Greshake Tzovaras, B., . . . Borda, A. Emerging health data platforms: From individual control to collective data governance Policy Significance Statement

Data & Policy, 2020

Health data have enormous potential to transform healthcare, health service design, research, and individual health management. However, health data collected by institutions tend to remain siloed within those institutions limiting access by other services, individuals or researchers. Further, health data generated outside health services (e.g., from wearable devices) may not be easily accessible or useable by individuals or connected to other parts of the health system. There are ongoing tensions between data protection and the use of data for the public good (e.g., research). Concurrently, there are a

European Health Data Space—An Opportunity Now to Grasp the Future of Data-Driven Healthcare

Healthcare

The May 2022 proposal from the European commission for a ‘European health data space’ envisages advantages for health from exploiting the growing mass of health data in Europe. However, key stakeholders have identified aspects that demand clarification to ensure success. Data will need to be freed from traditional silos to flow more easily and to cross artificial borders. Wide engagement will be necessary among healthcare professionals, researchers, and the patients and citizens that stand to gain the most but whose trust must be won if they are to allow use or transfer of their data. This paper aims to alert the wider scientific community to the impact the ongoing discussions among lawmakers will have. Based on the literature and the consensus findings of an expert multistakeholder panel organised by the European Alliance for Personalised Medicine (EAPM) in June 2022, it highlights the key issues at the intersection of science and policy, and the potential implications for health r...

The European medical information framework: A novel ecosystem for sharing healthcare data across Europe

Learning Health Systems, 2019

Introduction: The European medical information framework (EMIF) was an Innovative Medicines Initiative project jointly supported by the European Union and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, that generated a common technology and governance framework to identify, assess and (re)use healthcare data, to facilitate real-world data research. The objectives of EMIF included providing a unified platform to support a wide range of studies within two verification programmes-Alzheimer's disease (EMIF-AD), and metabolic consequences of obesity (EMIF-MET). Methods: The EMIF platform was built around two main data-types: electronic health record data and research cohort data, and the platform architecture composed of a set of tools designed to enable data discovery and characterisation. This included the EMIF catalogue, which allowed users to find relevant data sources, including the data-types collected. Data harmonisation via a common data model were central to the project especially for population data sources. EMIF also developed an ethical code of practice to ensure data protection, patient confidentiality and compliance with the European Data Protection Directive, and GDPR. Results: Currently 18 population-based disease agnostic and 60 cohort-based Alzheimer's data partners from across 14 countries are contained within the catalogue, and this will continue to expand. The work conducted in EMIF-AD and EMIF-MET includes standardizing cohorts, summarising baseline characteristics of patients, developing diagnostic algorithms, epidemiological studies, identifying and validating novel biomarkers and selecting potential patient samples for pharmacological intervention. Conclusions: EMIF was designed to provide a sustainable model as demonstrated by the sustainability plans for EMIF-AD. Although network-wide studies using EMIF were not conducted during this project to evaluate its sustainability, learning from EMIF will be used in the follow-on IMI-2 project, European Health Data and Evidence Network (EHDEN). Furthermore, EMIF has facilitated collaborations between partners † The EMIF consortium comprised 56 institutions including academic and industry partners. The names of the institutions, and writers who contributed to the design, drafting, editing, reviewing, and final approval of the manuscript are acknowledged in the acknowledgment section of the manuscript.

Scaling up health knowledge at European level requires sharing integrated data: an approach for collection of database specification

ClinicoEconomics and Outcomes Research, 2016

Computerized health care databases have been widely described as an excellent opportunity for research. The availability of "big data" has brought about a wave of innovation in projects when conducting health services research. Most of the available secondary data sources are restricted to the geographical scope of a given country and present heterogeneous structure and content. Under the umbrella of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing, collaborative work conducted by the partners of the group on "adherence to prescription and medical plans" identified the use of observational and large-population databases to monitor medication-taking behavior in the elderly. This article describes the methodology used to gather the information from available databases among the Adherence Action Group partners with the aim of improving data sharing on a European level. A total of six databases belonging to three different European countries (Spain, Republic of Ireland, and Italy) were included in the analysis. Preliminary results suggest that there are some similarities. However, these results should be applied in different contexts and European countries, supporting the idea that large European studies should be designed in order to get the most of already available databases.

Health and Healthcare: Assessing the Real World Data Policy Landscape in Europe

Rand health quarterly, 2014

Real-world data (RWD) is an umbrella term for different types of data that are not collected in conventional randomised controlled trials. RWD in the healthcare sector comes from various sources and includes patient data, data from clinicians, hospital data, data from payers and social data. There are already examples of ways in which research has contributed to the provision, construction and capture of RWD to improve health outcomes. However, to maximise the potential of these new pools of data in the healthcare sector, stakeholders need to identify pathways and processes which will allow them to efficiently access and use RWD in order to achieve better research outcomes and improved healthcare delivery. Current efforts to improve access to RWD and facilitate its use take place in a context of resource scarcity. Based on a literature review, case studies, a small set of interviews of experts from public and private organisations and a scenario based workshop, the study outlined po...

Expanding citizen engagement in the secondary use of health data: an opportunity for national health data access bodies to realise the intentions of the European Health Data Space

Archives of Public Health

The European Health Data Space (EHDS) aims to make the primary use of health data for healthcare provision more continuous, effective, and (cost) efficient. Moreover, it pursues to facilitate the secondary use of health data for purposes such as research, innovation, and policy making. In the context of secondary use, the EHDS legislative proposal (published on 3 May 2022) argues that Member States should develop Health Data Access Bodies (HDABs) whose responsibilities include facilitating the secondary use of health data, issuing data permits, and implementing high levels of accountability and security. In Belgium, the setup in 2023 of a federal Health Data Agency (HDA) that is developing and implementing a policy strategy and framework for the secondary use of health data, aligns well with the responsibilities set out for HDABs. Even though the EHDS aspires the empowerment of citizens, for instance by giving them access to their health data and control over the healthcare professi...

Health data use, stewardship, and governance: ongoing gaps and challenges: a report from AMIA's 2012 Health Policy Meeting

Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 2014

Large amounts of personal health data are being collected and made available through existing and emerging technological media and tools. While use of these data has significant potential to facilitate research, improve quality of care for individuals and populations, and reduce healthcare costs, many policy-related issues must be addressed before their full value can be realized. These include the need for widely agreed-on data stewardship principles and effective approaches to reduce or eliminate data silos and protect patient privacy. AMIA's 2012 Health Policy Meeting brought together healthcare academics, policy makers, and system stakeholders (including representatives of patient groups) to consider these topics and formulate recommendations. A review of a set of Proposed Principles of Health Data Use led to a set of findings and recommendations, including the assertions that the use of health data should be viewed as a public good and that achieving the broad benefits of this use will require understanding and support from patients.