Nordic Life Science 1
he Nordic health data infrastructure truly repres
ents a treasure trove for public and private sector research and innovation, according to Jonasson. This infrastructure is surely already today contributing to good research, some of it at the international forefront, he says. “But, I would still say that the untapped potential is huge. The reasons why the health data infrastructure overall is under-utilized relates to factors of complicated approval processes, outdated technical infrastructures and a legal framework that is hard to navigate for user groups.” Luckily, all Nordic countries have national initiatives underway to modernize the technical, organizational and legal framework. One-stop-shop concepts like the Norwegian Health Analytics Platform (HAP) has great potential, says Jonasson. “Hopefully, the national initiatives we see unfold can be an important step to a more integrated Nordic and European system for secondary use of health data. The Nordic Commons and the Towards the European Health Data Space (TEHDaS) are important projects that hopefully will facilitate cross-border collaborations in the future.” RWE has also been in the spotlight during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. It has been vital in helping governments, healthcare providers and communities understand how effective vaccines are at reducing the burden of, and protecting against, COVID-19, states AstraZeneca for example. “RWE can help us understand vaccine effectiveness against different disease severities – from reducing deaths and hospital admissions to preventing milder forms of the disease, in reducing rates of infection across the population, in preventing transmission and spread of the virus, in different populations, including age, race, ethnicity and those living with underlying health conditions, such as asthma, diabetes and HIV,” the pharma company writes on its homepage. As an example, in July 2021, Pfizer and BioNTech used an Israeli RWE study to determine immunity following the first two doses of their vaccine. The companies cited the findings in discussions around whether a third “booster” dose is needed to ensure efficacy. “IN THE POST-PANDEMIC EVALUATION OF THE PANDEMIC, MY HOPE IS THAT THERE WILL BE MORE PUBLIC INVESTMENT IN THE ENTIRE INFRASTRUCTURE OF REAL-WORLD DATA IN THE NORDIC.” CHRISTIAN JONASSON, MEMBER OF THE BOARD, NORDICRWE Also, in a study published in the Medical Journal of Australia in May this year, researchers were able to show that Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and Oxford/ AstraZeneca vaccines appeared to reduce people’s chances of infection and hospitalization by more than 80% – regardless of their age. Researchers in Israel, Sweden, the U.S., England and Scotland analyzed multiple linked health datasets to measure effectiveness of the vaccines being deployed in their communities. They used different techniques to adjust for factors that likely confound the relationship between vaccination and COVID-19 complications. Christian Jonasson definitely believe that the pandemic has accelerated developments and the use of RWE. “RWD has been instrumental in the handling of the outbreak and as a basis of informed decision-making, for instance to monitor the safety and effectiveness of the vaccines, to monitor to burden of the outbreak on the healthcare system and to follow the adherence to recommendation on social distancing in the population,” Jonasson says. In contrast, the pandemic has also clearly shown the lack of real-time data in today’s system, he adds. “In the post-pandemic evaluation of the pandemic, my hope is that there will be more public investment in the entire infrastructure of real-world data in the Nordic,” concludes Jonasson NLS NORDICLIFESCIENCE.ORG 31