Press Release

Utilization of Healthcare Data for Research - Benefits and Limitations

A TMF Panel Discussion at the "Medica Health IT Forum 2013" brings together academic research, medical informatics, data protection experts, and the pharmaceutical industry.

05.11.2013

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The utilization of healthcare data for research could accelerate the development of new medications and diagnostic procedures. Currently, industry and research institutions are investing significant time and money to collect and make clinical patient data usable for medical research. However, various information technology and legal hurdles still stand in the way. A panel discussion moderated by TMF Managing Director Sebastian C. Semler, taking place on November 21 as part of this year's Medica, aims to shed light on where the use of healthcare data for research is meaningful and where it encounters its limits.

"The structured collection of healthcare data has repeatedly allowed us to verify the results of clinical studies for their relevance in daily routine on a large number of patients," describes Dr. med. Rainer Röhrig from the University Hospital Gießen the advantages of this approach for research. "In addition, we have often been able to use the data for patient recruitment or to avoid transmission errors," adds Röhrig.

However, although a large part of the information needed for research purposes is already stored in electronic health records, these data are often not accessible to researchers. There is a lack of uniform vocabularies, codings, and data descriptions. Moreover, data from healthcare are often not comparable, even within individual clinics, causing problems between different IT systems. "A multitude of clinical data elements need to be reviewed, mapped to standardized terminologies, and structured for analysis," describes panel participant Dr. Thomas Ganslandt, who deals with such issues at the Medical Center for Information and Communication Technology at the University Hospital Erlangen. Given the various technical hurdles, the importance of overarching IT standards for medical research is once again evident.

The TMF panel discussion will take place on Thursday, November 21, 2013, from 5:00 p.m. to 5:50 p.m. in Hall 15, Forum 1, as part of the Medica Health IT Forum.