Vall d'Hebron hosted its first data management event today, ‘Adding Data, Multiplying Knowledge’, which examined how the processing and analysis of the data generated and used by healthcare professionals and management structures in clinical practice are highly valuable for improving health outcomes, hospital management, and research. “The event has not only served to present Vall d'Hebron’s data strategy, but also how it is contextualized within the Catalan Health Service and the Catalan Institute of Health ICS,” explains Dr. Yolima Cossio, Director of Information Systems and Decision Support at Vall d'Hebron University Hospital, who welcomed attendees together with Pol Pérez, Director of Information Systems of the Catalan Health Service and ICS Data Strategy, and Pau López, Head of the Technical Office of Information Systems at ICS. The various talks, roundtables, and workshops of the event, sponsored by IBM, GMV, and Logicalis, provided a space to reflect on the entire lifecycle of health data, take stock to improve its management, and analyze the future challenges ahead.

‘Adding Data, Multiplying Knowledge’ began with the roundtable ‘Garbage In, Garbage Out: What are we doing to improve the origin and quality of data?’, moderated by Dr. Yolima Cossio, featuring Xavier Garcia Cuscó, Data Analyst of the Management Support Unit; Rosario Muñoz, Head of the Medical Documentation Unit; Dr. Xabier Michelena, Rheumatologist and ICT Consultant; Nurse Irena Batuecas, from the Knowledge Management and Evaluation Unit; and Dr. Marta Olivé, Neurologist. This roundtable discussed the importance of ensuring data quality from its very origin and the value of recording structured data. Participants shared with professionals how data quality is being improved at Vall d'Hebron and what strategies are being implemented in this regard: data structuring, coding, and the inclusion of new sources such as Patient Reported Outcomes to facilitate data exploitation, improve decision making, and enhance information feedback to professionals.

‘The Path to Becoming a Data Driven Hospital: What Are We Doing to Achieve It?’, the second roundtable, moderated by Dr. Rosa Ramos, Coordinator of the Management Support Unit, included Marta Aller, Technical Coordinator of the Management Support Unit; Dr. Rafael Simó, Head of the Endocrinology and Nutrition Service at Vall d'Hebron University Hospital and Deputy Director of Clinical Research at VHIR, as well as President of Clinical Research at Vall d'Hebron; Sandra Agustino, Supervisor of the Digestive Diseases Area; and Dr. Jordi Temprana, from the Pathology Service. Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, data have gained great value by demonstrating their essential role in qualified decision making and becoming an asset for management and innovation. In this context, Vall d'Hebron is on the path to becoming a data driven hospital that makes decisions through thorough analysis of its own data, as discussed in this roundtable. The hospital has, for example, GIBI, a portal that displays hospital data, maps, and projects. Concrete initiatives such as the Smart Diabetes pilot program, a blood glucose control map updated several times a day, were also discussed. Early morning readings are essential to guide insulin administration, take medical actions, and provide an overall patient assessment to determine the best care pathway. The glucose map is implemented through a digital remote monitoring tool. Initial results indicate better control, a positive impact on patient health, fewer complications, and a reduced average hospital stay. Another example is DigiPATICS, an ambitious digital transformation project applying artificial intelligence tools to digitize pathology samples and optimize the diagnostic process, enabling networked work among ICS hospitals and promoting professional collaboration to improve equity in diagnosis.

Manuel Bruscas, a data use expert and cofounder of BcnAnalytics, delivered the talk ‘Artificial Intelligence AI in the Hospital Sector: Myth or Reality’, which presented ongoing AI initiatives in healthcare, including machine learning systems capable of identifying patterns in data to make predictions.

The Importance of Data in Research

The rapid increase in requests for studies and research projects involving big data, artificial intelligence, and machine learning has led to the creation of an interdisciplinary data access committee to facilitate and support professionals. The event ‘Adding Data, Multiplying Knowledge’ concluded with the roundtable focused on data use for research, ‘Secondary Use of Data with Collective Intelligence’, moderated by Dr. Albert Barberà, Director of External Strategy at VHIR. He discussed the creation of a multidisciplinary data access committee to facilitate and guide professionals. Participants included Dr. Manel Escobar, Clinical Director of the Imaging Diagnostics Service at Vall d'Hebron University Hospital and IDI Vall d'Hebron; Dr. Ignacio Ferreira, Head of the Cardiology Service and President of CEIM Vall d'Hebron; Zaira Benítez, Head of the Data Architecture Unit; Roser Cobos, Director of Legal Advisory; and Julian Isla, Software Engineer at Microsoft specializing in Data and Artificial Intelligence.

Following this, the talk ‘Vall d'Hebron TeDades: Data Governance Platform’, by Zaira Benítez, Head of the Data Architecture Unit at Vall d'Hebron University Hospital, informed professionals that a harmonized database is already available for secondary data use following an international model, and presented the launch of the hospital’s data governance platform project and its benefits. This final part of the event focused on clarifying the circuits and protocols for research projects requiring mass data access: how researchers can verify the availability of specific data, the steps to implement their project, how agreements must be formalized, data protection considerations, and more.

Additionally, the event included two workshops to provide hands-on experience with the OMOP data model and an immersion in the DataFabric data space.