31 August 2023
Currently, there is huge potential for scientific discovery, given the size and rate of growth of health research data. However, researchers and clinicians who want to use this valuable data encounter many difficulties, including time and effort spent preparing data for analysis.
Health data comes from a wide variety of sources. This means it may not use the same organised terminology or be stored in the same format. These differences in how data is stored or described create challenges for researchers preparing data for analyses. There must be sustainable, scalable, and secure methods for storing, accessing, combining, and using this vast data.
Data must be translated into interoperable formats to address these issues with health data analysis. Transformation of health data is the answer.
To address the inconsistent nature of health data, common data models (CDMs) are being used more frequently in the healthcare industry. Several CDMs have grown in popularity in the life sciences sector including Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) from HL7, the Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership (OMOP) CDM from the OHDSI and Study Data Tabulation Model (SDTM) from CDISC.
When data is standardised to these CDMs, it may be efficiently combined. This makes it more useful than the sum of its parts alone. CDMs allow for sharing of research tools and data across nations, sources, and systems.
Many benefits can be gained by standardising health data to a standard format, but it is not without technical challenges. This article explores the challenges researchers face when standardising data and presents some solutions being developed.
Data harmonisation is important due to ever-increasing data volumes and formats in healthcare. The key to producing longitudinal patient insights is developing data standardisation solutions that ensure data quality and integrity while enabling secure, straightforward and compliant data analysis.
Author: Hannah Gaimster, PhD
Contributors: Hadley E. Sheppard, PhD and Amanda White
Lifebit provides health data standardisation services for clients, including Genomics England, Boehringer Ingelheim, Flatiron Health and more, to help researchers transform data into discoveries.
Lifebit’s services are making health data usable quickly.
Interested in learning more about Lifebit’s health data standardisation services and how we accelerate research insights for academia, healthcare and pharmaceutical companies worldwide?
Find out more about the value of data standardisation at our upcoming webinar, Data Harmony, on 14 September 2023. Secure your place today.