The European Institute for Innovation through Health Data

The European Institute for Innovation through Health Data (i~HD, www.i-hd.eu) has been formed as one of the key sustainable entities arising from the Electronic Health Records for Clinical Research (IMI-JU-115189) and SemanticHealthNet (FP7-288408) projects, in collaboration with several other European projects and initiatives supported by the European Commission. i~HD is a European not-for-profit body, registered in Belgium through Royal Assent. i~HD has been established to tackle areas of challenge in the successful scaling up of innovations that critically rely on high-quality and interoperable health data. It will specifically address obstacles and opportunities to using health data by collating, developing, and promoting best practices in information governance and in semantic interoperability. It will help to sustain and propagate the results of health information and communication technology (ICT) research that enables better use of health data, assessing and optimizing their novel value wherever possible. i~HD has been formed after wide consultation and engagement of many stakeholders to develop methods, solutions, and services that can help to maximize the value obtained by all stakeholders from health data. It will support innovations in health maintenance, health care delivery, and knowledge discovery while ensuring compliance with all legal prerequisites, especially regarding the insurance of patient's privacy protection. It is bringing multiple stakeholder groups together so as to ensure that future solutions serve their collective needs and can be readily adopted affordably and at scale

Semantic Integration of Cervical Cancer Data Repositories to Facilitate Multicenter Association Studies: The ASSIST Approach

The current work addresses the unifi cation of Electronic Health Records related to cervical cancer into a single medical knowledge source, in the context of the EU-funded ASSIST research project. The project aims to facilitate the research for cervical precancer and cancer through a system that virtually unifi es multiple patient record repositories, physically located in different medical centers/hospitals, thus, increasing fl exibility by allowing the formation of study groups “on demand” and by recycling patient records in new studies. To this end, ASSIST uses semantic technologies to translate all medical entities (such as patient examination results, history, habits, genetic profi le) and represent them in a common form, encoded in the ASSIST Cervical Cancer Ontology. The current paper presents the knowledge elicitation approach followed, towards the defi nition and representation of the disease’s medical concepts and rules that constitute the basis for the ASSIST Cervical Cancer Ontology. The proposed approach constitutes a paradigm for semantic integration of heterogeneous clinical data that may be applicable to other biomedical application domains

Reliability and validity of the INFOOT three-dimensional foot digitizer for patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Background: Abnormal foot posture and deformities are identified as important features in rheumatoid arthritis. There is still no consensus regarding the optimum technique(s) for quantifying these features; hence, a foot digitizer might be used as an objective measurement tool. We sought to assess the validity and reliability of the INFOOT digitizer. Methods: To investigate the validity of the INFOOT digitizer compared with clinical measurements, we calculated Pearson correlation coefficients. To investigate the reliability of the INFOOT digitizer, we calculated intraclass correlation coefficients, SEMs, smallest detectable differences, and smallest detectable difference percentages. Results: Most of the 38 parameters showed good intraclass correlation coefficients, with values greater than 0.9 for 30 parameters and greater than 0.8 for seven parameters. The left heel bone angle expressed a moderate correlation, with a value of 0.609. The SEM values varied between 0.31 and 3.51 mm for the length and width measures, between 0.74 and 5.58 mm for the height data, between 0.75 and 5.9 mm for the circumferences, and between 0.78 degrees and 2.98 degrees for the angles. The smallest detectable difference values ranged from 0.86 to 16.36 mm for length, width, height, and circumference measures and from 2.17 degrees to 8.26 degrees for the angle measures. For the validity of the INFOOT three-dimensional foot digitizer, Pearson correlation coefficients varied between 0.750 and 0.997. Conclusions: In this rheumatoid arthritis population, good validity was demonstrated compared with clinical measurements, and most of the obtained parameters proved to be reliable. (J Am Podiatr Med Assoc 101(3): 198-207, 2011

Semantic Integration of Cervical Cancer Data Repositories to Facilitate Multicenter Association Studies: The ASSIST Approach

The current work addresses the unification of Electronic Health Records related to cervical cancer into a single medical knowledge source, in the context of the EU-funded ASSIST research project. The project aims to facilitate the research for cervical precancer and cancer through a system that virtually unifies multiple patient record repositories, physically located in different medical centers/hospitals, thus, increasing flexibility by allowing the formation of study groups “on demand” and by recycling patient records in new studies. To this end, ASSIST uses semantic technologies to translate all medical entities (such as patient examination results, history, habits, genetic profile) and represent them in a common form, encoded in the ASSIST Cervical Cancer Ontology. The current paper presents the knowledge elicitation approach followed, towards the definition and representation of the disease’s medical concepts and rules that constitute the basis for the ASSIST Cervical Cancer Ontology. The proposed approach constitutes a paradigm for semantic integration of heterogeneous clinical data that may be applicable to other biomedical application domains

The launch of the European Institute for innovation through health data

The European Institute for Innovation through Health Data (i~HD) has been formed as one of the sustainable entities arising from the Electronic Health Records for Clinical Research (EHR4CR) and SemanticHealthNet projects, in collaboration with other European Commission projects and initiatives. The vision of i~HD is to become the European organisation of reference for guiding and catalysing the best, most efficient and trustworthy uses of health data and interoperability, for optimizing health and knowledge discovery.i~HD has been established in recognition that there is a need to tackle areas of challenge in the successful scaling up of innovations that rely on high-quality and interoperable health data, to sustain and propagate the results of eHealth research, and to address current-day obstacles to using health data. i~HD was launched at an inaugural conference in Paris, in March 2016. This was attended by over 200 European clinicians, healthcare providers and researchers, representatives of the pharma industry, patient associations, health professional associations, the health ICT industry and standards bodies. The event showcased issues and approaches, that are presented in this paper to highlight the activities that i~HD intends to pursue as enablers of the better uses of health data, for care and research

Computed tomographic analysis of the quality of trunk muscles in asymptomatic and symptomatic lumbar discectomy patients

Background: No consensus exists on how rehabilitation programs for lumbar discectomy patients with persistent complaints after surgery should be composed. A better understanding of normal and abnormal postoperative trunk muscle condition might help direct the treatment goals. Methods: A three-dimensional CT scan of the lumbar spine was obtained in 18 symptomatic and 18 asymptomatic patients who had undergone a lumbar discectomy 42 months to 83 months (median 63 months) previously. The psoas muscle (PS), the paraspinal muscle mass (PA) and the multifidus muscle (MF) were outlined at the L3, L4 and L5 level. Of these muscles, fat free Cross Sectional Area (CSA) and fat CSA were determined. CSA of the lumbar erector spinae (LES = longissimus thoracis + iliocostalis lumborum) was calculated by subtracting MF CSA from PA CSA. Mean muscle CSA of the left and right sides was calculated at each level. To normalize the data for interpersonal comparison, the mean CSA was divided by the CSA of the L3 vertebral body (mCSA = normalized fat-free muscle CSA; fCSA = normalized fat CSA). Differences in CSA between the pain group and the pain free group were examined using a General Linear Model (GLM). Three levels were examined to investigate the possible role of the level of operation. Results: In lumbar discectomy patients with pain, the mCSA of the MF was significantly smaller than in pain-free subjects (p = 0.009) independently of the level. The mCSA of the LES was significantly smaller in pain patients, but only on the L3 slice (p = 0.018). No significant difference in mCSA of the PS was found between pain patients and pain-free patients (p = 0.462). The fCSA of the MF (p = 0.186) and of the LES (p = 0.256) were not significantly different between both populations. However, the fCSA of the PS was significantly larger in pain patients than in pain-free patients. (p = 0.012). The level of operation was never a significant factor. Conclusions: CT comparison of MF, LES and PS muscle condition between lumbar discectomy patients without pain and patients with protracted postoperative pain showed a smaller fat-free muscle CSA of the MF at all levels examined, a smaller fat-free muscle CSA of the LES at the L3 level, and more fat in the PS in patients with pain. The level of operation was not found to be of importance. The present results suggest a general lumbar muscle dysfunction in the pain group, in particular of the deep stabilizing muscle system