Application of Healthcare Big Data in the Evaluation of Clinical Outcomes in Patients after H Pylori Eradication Treatment

Abstract

The importance of observational studies in the evaluation of drug safety and effectiveness has been recognized in recent decades. Data generated from observational studies supplement pre-marketing experimental trials, especially in situations where the outcome of drug exposure is rare, delayed or observed in specific subgroups. In such cases, large databases offer a platform with relatively large sample sizes, long follow-up periods and few ethical issues, and are more cost-effective and efficient compared to interventional studies. Healthcare big databases are an important tool to generate “Real-World Evidence” for medicine research. The Hong Kong Hospital Authority (HA) has a unified electronic health record system which contains clinical information from all publicly funded primary, secondary, tertiary care and accident and emergency admissions. The Hospital Authority electronic health records platform has the appropriate infrastructure and potential to be developed into a world-class research database, much like the “Clinical Practice Research Datalink” in the UK. Furthermore, it contains important data, including patient demographics, laboratory results, and medical records, that are captured as part of routine clinical management, currently the database contains data from 11 million patients. In this talk, I will demonstrate the application of Hong Kong Hospital Authority clinical database in evaluating clinical outcomes in patients after H pylori eradication treatment. Specifically, I will present the results of two published studies from our research team in the BMJ [1] and JAMA Internal Medicine [2]. References: [1] https://www.bmj.com/content/352/bmj.h6926.long (open access) [2] https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2517922 (open access)