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Starting this Saturday, the international research community will be able to access, with the company's approval, the data set of the nearly 3,000 anonymised medical records of patients admitted with Covid-19 that the HM Hospitals group has decided to make public.

This is probably the first initiative of its kind in the world, given that "most of the databases of patients with shared Covid-19 are demographic, but in our case all clinical and epidemiological data are included. , in addition to analytics, radiological tests, applied treatments, etc., "explains Justo Menéndez, head of the HM Hospitals Emergency Service.

This information is offered to "institutions, not people", that is, universities, research groups or health entities. Each of the access requests "is valued and approved, if applicable, by a scientific committee that also takes into account ethical considerations, because data cannot be traded ."

Liquid gold

This is a fundamental aspect, given that this type of information "is liquid gold, worth millions, and nobody dares to share it for free," says Alberto Estirado, director of Information Systems and Digital Transformation of the hospital group. In fact, if HM is encouraged to do so "it is for others to take an example, it is about democratizing the data."

At the moment, the group has received requests from more than 80 institutions from 15 different countries in Europe, America and Asia.

And the usefulness of these data is enormous. "Such a volume of information allows great research power," says Menéndez. As he explains, it is possible "to carry out clinical-epidemiological crossover studies, of effectiveness of treatments, tests and prognostic markers, and to know much more about this disease."

In fact, the group itself already has a clinical-epidemiological study of its own and collaborates with other institutions in clinical trials and other projects.

Better planning

But the usefulness of the data does not stop there: according to Estirado, the great value of this information is that "it does not tell us what has happened, but rather what is happening ." Thus, in addition to the medical potential of the research, it can be very useful "from an organizational point of view, since knowing how the epidemic evolves allows for better planning in those places where it is still beginning."

Ultimately, those responsible for the project, called Covid Data Save Lives, believe that, in Menéndez's words, "this information will benefit institutions and, above all, patients." Or, as Stretched points out, "it can help save lives."

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