14 June 2023
ERS is among 32 public and private partners to join the newly formed consortium – Integration of heterogenous Data and Evidence towards Regulatory & HTA Acceptance (IDERHA), that aims to integrate health data across Europe to aid clinical decision-making for lung cancer patients.
IDERHA will be led by the Fraunhofer Institute for Translational Medicine and Pharmacology ITMP and Johnson & Johnson MEDICAL GmbH, alongside academia, industry, health authorities, clinicians, and patient representatives. ERS will act as a partner involved in dissemination, communication, and advocacy.
In recent years, there has been an exponential growth in the generation of health data from readouts generated by digital technologies; clinical trials; routine clinical care; patient reported outcomes and experience measures. However, accessing, integrating, and analysing this data, to maximize its value for patient care and research, is extremely challenging.
As the first pan-European health data space, IDERHA, aims to create a common, scalable platform for the seamless integration of diverse data to support healthcare professionals, patients, and researchers. This will act to improve patient outcomes by better treating and managing disease, enabling personalized care, and bolstering research and innovation.
This consortium is one of the first research projects funded through the Innovative Health Initiative (IHI), a public-private partnership (PPP) between the European Union and the European life science industries that supports transformative research and innovation.
Dr Philip Gribbon, Coordinator of IDERHA at Fraunhofer ITMP said: “I am thrilled that such a talented group of researchers, united under the frame of IDERHA, will develop a platform to revolutionize the use and interpretation of clinical data, from which lung cancer patients will directly benefit. We are honoured to be selected as one of the first consortia supported by IHI, with this challenging yet rewarding project.
“IDERHA is a pioneering project focussed on creating health care solutions that integrate diverse health data, to bring improved care and treatments for patients”.
The initiative will drive the acceptability of heterogenous health research results for regulatory and health technology assessment decision making. IDERHA’s focus is lung cancer, one of the key priorities of Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan, as lung cancer is responsible for 20% of cancer related deaths in Europe.
Dr Hugh Laverty, IHI Executive Director ad interim said: “IDERHA is an exciting project that really exemplifies what the Innovative Health Initiative is about. It is a true cross-sectoral, public-private partnership. It brings together experts from diverse fields like health data, imaging, and oncology, to improve the lives of people with lung cancer.”
IDERHA’s pilot program will focus on the improvement of early cancer detection and the quality of life of cancer patients, in line with the Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan. It will link and analyse diverse data stemming along the continuum of a lung cancer patient’s journey: from early screening of citizens at risk to develop lung cancer, to remote monitoring of late-stage patients, to enable better care in an at home setting. Ultimately, the platform and policy recommendations will be disease independent.
Informed by patient needs, IDERHA will develop consensus recommendations for health data access and sharing as well as for the acceptability of heterogeneous health research results for regulatory and HTA decision-making.
To enable patients and health care providers to benefit from novel health solutions, the consortium seeks to accelerate policy development and develop a framework for data governance that can act as a global model.