Big DATA

Aims:

To

• advocate for optimising the use of and access to Big Data to support research and clinical care of older people,
• promote collaborations in the field of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) between research groups across Europe,
• advocate for the use of routine data to facilitate data-enabled trials in older people, and to promote this through cross-SIG collaborations within EUGMS,
• share and develop coding capabilities of geriatric medicine clinicians in Europe, and advance methods and expertise in their application to problems of ageing,
• develop platforms for comparison of outcomes of social and healthcare for older people across European countries to inform future service design.

Relevance for the purposes of the EuGMS:

The work of the SIG on Big Data supports the core mission of the EuGMS, namely, to promote evidence-based consensus for the most efficacious strategies to prevent and treat diseases and harm for older people in Europe. Moreover, it supports that these preventive and treatment strategies become available to all European citizens. In countries that do not yet have access to this technology, we will advocate for transparency, data sharing, and aim to share learning from other countries where the technology is more established in healthcare.

Chairpersons (2 persons) /contact coordinates:

Co-chairs:

Oliver Todd, Academic Unit for Ageing and Stroke Research, University of Leeds, UK o.todd(at)leeds.ac.uk

Karen Andersen-Ranberg, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark, karanberg(at)health.sdu.dk 

Secretary:

Giulia Ogliari, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, UK; Giulia.Ogliari1@nottingham.ac.uk

Expected method of work:

To develop a community of clinicians and data scientists with an interest in this field of work, using the platform, www.geridata.com so as to harness future collaboration, networking, and offer a space on which to publish research protocols and share codes and coding language.

Organise workshops to present cutting edge data research in Europe to provide a space dedicated to big data research and its applications to clinical care. By bringing together data scientists and clinicians we hope to share learning. We plan to have one in person annual general meeting during the EuGMS Congress and further online meetings during the year.

Conduct collaborative research projects. To co-ordinate this and the above activities, we will organise quarterly group meetings online. Early anticipated collaborative projects include:

1. Mapping of available data sets across Europe, detail below.
2. Seek funding to compare outcomes relevant to the care of older people, using different national data sets between European health systems to inform future health service redesign.

First expected outcome and approximate date of completion:

We plan to write a position / Horizon paper to make a case for data-driven approach to improve geriatric care in European countries.

• We aim to map existing publicly available datasets in Europe which include data related to the social and healthcare and health outcomes of older adults aged 65 years and older, in various settings (e.g. primary care, acute hospitals, long-term care).
• We aim to highlight how health outcomes may be differently recorded and coded and how this could be standardised and harmonised.
• In our view, standardisation of the collection and coding of healthcare data is essential to allow for: 1) cross-country comparisons of prevalence of various age-associated conditions or diseases (e.g. falls, malnutrition, delirium and incontinence) as well as 2) cross-country comparisons of patient-relevant outcomes of specific conditions or diseases that can be influenced by different healthcare systems.

Way of communication among members:

Email

Planning of meetings:

Quarterly meetings – online