Background: The global shift from paper health records to electronic ones has led to an impressive growth of
biomedical digital data along the past two decades. Exploring and extracting knowledge from these data has the
potential to enhance translational research and lead to positive outcomes for the population’s health and
healthcare.
Obective: The aim of this study was to conduct a systematic review to identify software platforms that enable
discovery, secondary use and interoperability of biomedical data. Additionally, we aim evaluating the identified
solutions in terms of clinical interest and main healthcare-related outcomes.
Methods: A systematic search of the scientific literature published and indexed in Pubmed between January
2014 and September 2018 was performed. Inclusion criteria were as follows: relevance for the topic of bio-
medical data discovery, English language, and free full text. To increase the recall, we developed a semi-auto-
matic and incremental methodology to retrieve articles that cite one or more of the previous set.
Results: A total number of 500 candidate papers were retrieved through this methodology. Of these, 85 were
eligible for abstract assessment. Finally, 37 studies qualified for a full-text review, and 20 provided enough
information for the study objectives.
Conclusions: This study revealed that biomedical discovery platforms are both a current necessity and a sig-
nificantly innovative agent in the area of healthcare. The outcomes that were identified, in terms of scientific
publications, clinical studies and research collaborations stand as evidence.publishe