Big data sits at the heart of the development of personalised medicines, but understandable concerns about data security and the confidentiality of individual healthcare records need to be addressed, to allow the benefits to flow.

A panel of international experts from research, policy and industry, discussed how to identify the key priorities and the barriers that must be removed to allow big data to be applied to the development of new, targeted treatments, in a workshop organised by EAPM at the 16th European Health Forum in Gastein, Austria.

The aim was to get the views of all stakeholders, to look at existing best practices for applying big data tools to healthcare, and consider how to bring more coordination to the field.

“A bottom-up approach [building] from patients is needed in personalised medicine, but with the involvement of all stakeholders,” said Angela Brand, Professor of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Maastricht University, co-chair of the workshop.

Some early examples are lighting the way and these successes need to be shared to drive adoption. But over and above piecemeal projects, a structure needs to be put in place that can promote and inform the deployment of big data, to improve public health, turbo-charge research and translation, and improve the administration of healthcare.

Europe’s healthcare systems are under pressure from many angles. The key issue, “one which is very important for all of us” – is to ensure sustainability in the face of these challenges, said Leonas Kaletinas, Member of the Board of Directors of the Lithuanian Health Forum, opening the workshop. The rational application of big data has a potential role to play here, Kaletinas told delegates.

An important first step would be applying big data principles to existing medical information stores said Terje Peetso, Unit H1 – Health and Well Being, DG Connect, European Commission. “It’s like refining crude oil to add value. We should work with the data we already have and get the value from that, Peetso said.

In addition, key issues to do with ownership, security and trust must be addressed, believes Amelia Andersdotter, MEP. “We have some serious challenges for politicians and industry to preserve citizens’ confidence,” she said.

Ernst Hafen, Institute of Molecular Systems Biology, ETH Zurich, agreed, noting, “We all have the same amount of health data.” Applying big data to personalised medicine, “Only works if we are comfortable with [our data] being used. We have to provide a safe and secure place to store it, like a bank,” Hafen said.

Public-private partnerships open the way for health data to be shared, and so improve research and translation, said Barbara Kerstiens, Head of Public Sector Health, DG Research, European Commission. The aim is, “To get stakeholders working together on data-sharing and access, and ensure there is a participant-centred approach,” she said.

A full report of the workshop and conclusions about the issues to be addressed in driving the deployment of big data to underpin the shift to more personalised healthcare will be published at a later date.

The 16th European Health Forum brought together 550 delegates from 45 countries, to take the pulse of Europe’s healthcare systems five years after the 2008 financial crisis and consider what needs to be done now to build, ‘Resilient and Innovative Health Systems for Europe.

The Big Data workshop was organised by EAPM and sponsored by EFPIA, Pfizer, IBM, Vital Transformation, and the Lithuanian Health Forum.

Source: EAPM