Eye on Brussels: EFPIA Oncology Data Summit

The European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) recently invited stakeholders, including the European Cancer Organisation and many others, to a one day Summit to explore the challenges and opportunities in respect to data and its use for the improvement of cancer care.

 A main feature of the event was debate and discussion on a recent ‘Report on oncology health data in Europe’, authored by IQVIA and AT Kearney. The report highlighted that whilst relevant and useful oncology health data is increasingly available from a very wide range of sources, major challenges remain in respect to the complexity of sources, and general fragmentation in respect to access and quality. The authors argue that a shift from tumour- to mutation- and biomarker-based, simultaneously raises new needs for reliable data sources and stronger standards.

The event also heard from an array of European level projects, initiatives and collaborations aiming at improving elements of the oncology data landscape. These include, but are not limited to: Big Data for Better Outcomes (BD4BO); the Collaboration for Oncology Data in Europe (CODE); the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI); the European Network of Cancer Registries (ENCR); the European Health Data Network (EHDN); the International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement (ICHOM); and, the Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership (OMOP) Oncology, within the Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics consortium.

 Other points of interest during the event were:

• How better use of data could assist health systems in understanding and responding to interventions in oncology that are NOT working well (and why);

• Approaches by the Finnish Government (Findata) to introduce an official brokering service to assist researchers and others to appropriately access relevant data within Government databases.

• The suggested need for a pan-European oncology ‘dashboard’ to more openly report to the public comparability between countries on key aspects of cancer care, such as screening and early diagnosis.

More information about the event here.