Semantic Technology to Ensure FAIR patient Data in Africa
LUMC and LUMC Global was represented at the 2023 Conference of the American Medical Informatics Association which opened on 12 November. Prof. Mirjam van Reisen, Prof FAIR Data Science and Erik Schultes, presented at the scientific panel on “The CEDAR Workbench: Semantic Technology to Ensure FAIR Data” alongside Mark A. Musen, M.D. from the Center for Biomedical Informatics Research, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford; Anthony L. Juehne, from the Office of the Director, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda; and Rachel L. Richesson, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor.
The presentations focused on the LUMC-research on the curation of medical data to ensure data is Findable, Accessible (under well-defined conditions), Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR) and Federated AI Ready.
The Research programme of VODAN of which Prof. Van Reisen is the PI has tested the potential of knowledge integration with data held in residence, within the health facility. The data is annotated with semantic attributions and is machine-actionable, produced in computer readable language. The project has deployed in 90 health facilities across 8 African countries, demonstrating the potential of secure, ethical patient data curation, in which the data does not leave the health facility or the country. The data is stored securely and can be visited for improvement of quality of care within the health facility. The data can also be visited for surveillance purposes across the health facilities, located in different geographies and residing under distinct regulatory frameworks which are respected alongside GDPR as the base standards for personal data protection.
The federated data that VODAN helps produce belong to the health data space, in which the data can be re-used and used for interoperable purposes, if permission is provided by the data producer and/or data subject. This provides a sustainable architecture in which the costs of data production and curation can be covered by the value generated from the re-use for new insights by other customers (under stringent permission controls). The architecture represents a granular source from patient health records, as a basis of a learning health care system.
Dr. Schultes presented how sets of research findings and data can be retrieved by indexing according to FAIR principles, which is supporting the work of research funders, such as ZonMw and NWO in The Netherlands. Representing the Go-FAIR Foundation, he presented the power of training of data stewards in establishing FAIR communities, to assist data integration across domains. The Metadata-for-Machines training has helped create training of trainers that support the introduction of FAIR-data principles in new communities. The collaboration with Stanford University Cedar for data annotation has been helpful in utilizing the services required.
A discussion on the importance of metadata and the production of data as FAIR at the source, produced in machine-actionable form is critical for further knowledge-integration. The FAIR home with its roots in LUMC and Leiden Global made an inspiring presence with use cases being proudly presented and discussed in the academic seminar on the opening day of AMIA.
More news & updates
Join the Indonesian WINNER Event 26-28 October, 2021
This WINNER (Week of Indonesia Netherlands Education and Research) event is a follow-up of the Climate Adaptation Summit (CAS), January 2021, and explores forms of cooperation between and within nations to make climate adaptation work for everyone, with a focus on Indonesia and the Netherlands. We will build on the successful international establishment of the Adaptation Action Agenda with high level keynotes. Then, two forms of Indonesia – Netherlands collaboration in urban and rural areas will be highlighted. Finally, we dive into the prerequisites for successful climate adaptation in a session focused on a priority for both the Netherlands and Indonesia: water resilience.
Improving maternal care in Ethiopia through PhD collaboration between Universities of Oxford, Haramaya and the LUMC
Sagni Girma Fage and Mohammed Yuya Ebro, two LUMC Global PhD students, are busy conducting research in eastern Ethiopia through a project called “Ethiopian Obstetric Surveillance System (EthOSS)”. This is a collaboration between Haramaya University (Ethiopia), the University of Oxford (UK), and LUMC which is active in 13 public hospitals in eastern Ethiopia. They are trying to identify determinants of maternal death such as perinatal hemorrhage in order to develop and implement new interventions to prevent future maternal deaths.
Population Health Management (MSc)
Today’s health care system faces many challenges. The new interdisciplinary two years master PHM will train you to contribute to a more integrated health care system.
What does this master’s programme entail?
Health care faces ageing populations, rising health care costs, fragmented health care supply and advancing medical technologies and IT systems. Health care professionals will require new competences to meet these challenges in the current health care system. Population Health Management (PHM) is a broadly based response to the challenges and has emerged worldwide as an important strategy for health care