THIN®, one of Europe’s largest healthcare databases, with real-world longitudinal data on 69 million anonymized patients, arrives in Italy

THIN^®, one of Europe’s largest healthcare databases, with real-world longitudinal data on 69 million anonymized patients, arrives in Italy

The current pandemic has highlighted the importance of real-time access to extensive, regularly updated, precise and usable real-world data in responding quickly and effectively to the emergency.

Cegedim Group (EURONEXT: CGM), a technology and services group specialised in digital data management in healthcare, has made its THIN^® (The Health Improvement Network) database available in Italy. With the Italian data, THIN^® now includes the anonymized health records of an unprecedented 69 million patients, or over 490 million patient-years. This data will benefit medical and scientific research and innovation, and is available to all health sector players.

Milan, July 6, 2021 – The THIN^® (The Health Improvement Network) database was created to broaden scientific knowledge, foster more timely diagnoses, improve treatment pathways, support research into new drugs, and provide healthcare systems with valuable information for public health policy planning based on real-world evidence. Now a major European real-world database recognised for its statistical robustness, THIN^® is used by the health authorities of several European countries and cited in over 1,600 indexed international scientific publications.

Today, THIN^® expands into Italy, enhancing its relevance with Italian data from the outpatient software of a panel of GPs. This ever-growing panel is already representative at national and macro-regional levels with over 900,000 patients monitored, an average history of 12.6 years, and a total of 11.4 million patient-years. The THIN^® European database now boasts an exceptional 69 million medical records and a total of 490 million patient-years, with data available for scientific research and all health ecosystem players.

THIN^® is an unobtrusive medical data collection scheme that assembles anonymized patient data from the management software of GPs and specialists. THIN^® uses a common European data model which makes the collected information easy to compare. It can be queried via advanced real-time insight and evidence web platforms to improve the medical-scientific knowledge of health authorities, universities, research centres, medical and scientific organizations and pharmaceutical companies. 

Gilles Paubert, Global Head of Cegedim Health Data, comments: "The coronavirus pandemic has made very clear how crucial it is for healthcare professionals to have access to constantly updated real-world data in order to monitor the evolution of the disease in patients. Our goal is to provide public institutions, clinicians and pharmaceutical companies with robust, accurate information to address emergencies and make increasingly informed public health decisions, now and in the near future". 

Pasquale Palladino, Cegedim Italia Country Manager, adds: "We are proud and honoured to be able to make our anonymized data, know-how and analysis platforms available to healthcare stakeholders, especially since the pandemic has dramatically highlighted the need for a technological and digital transformation of healthcare systems—particularly in Italy. Cegedim Group is the specialist in coded and structured data collection and analysis. Our data is secure, robust, precise and near real-time to enable in-depth understanding, factual decision-making and rapid action. With our data, we hope we can facilitate a better understanding of diagnostic and therapeutic pathways and consequently improve patient management and care”.

Elena Zanzottera Ferrari, Operations Director of Cegedim Italia, concludes: "The THIN^® project is the fruit of the efforts of an international team with great knowledge of the sector, supported by a highly technological and innovative group like Cegedim. Its strength lies in the fact that it is a multi-country database of anonymized patient data, based on an easy-to-consult 'common data model' and a web platform that enables interaction between all operators in the sector". 

The THIN^® project also has an Advisory Board composed of physicians, academics, epidemiologists, data scientists, and members of patient associations, and includes representatives of the Italian scientific community. The Advisory Board ensures that the database is used in the public’s best interests in order to maximise its research value whilst protecting the rights of its data subjects. The Advisory Board may authorise health institutions and research centres to use THIN^® data for studies of purely scientific value, free of charge.