Real-world data (RWD) created in Finnish healthcare is comprehensive and high-quality. Sweden, another Scandinavian country, also offers high-quality healthcare data for real-world evidence generation.
“By combining the data from these two countries, we reach a population of over 15 million unique individuals,” states Dr. Johanna Simin, Lead RWE Epidemiologist at Medaffcon, during Medaffcon’s annual EMMA event.
In Sweden, a vast amount of healthcare data is available at the national and regional levels, covering a long period of time. Different data sources can be linked using the Swedish personal identification number.
The information needed for real-world evidence (RWE) research is available in Sweden from several national and regional databases, researcher-led databases, about 450 registered biobanks, and over 100 disease-specific quality registries.
“Research results based on solid real-world data (RWD) from Sweden or Finland can be generalised to other relatively similar populations and settings, such as Germany,” states Dr. Johanna Simin, Lead RWE Epidemiologist at Medaffcon.
The Stockholm-based VårdAnalysdataLager (VAL) data lake integrates data from the County of Stockholm. This data lake contains the real-time data needed for real-world evidence (RWE) generation reflecting the clinical praxis and covers nearly a quarter of Sweden’s population.
VAL data lake includes information from specialised and primary healthcare and private healthcare services. Linking VAL data to the regions’ hospitals allows tracking of patient treatment and prognosis, treatment costs, and variations in treatment outcomes across different hospitals.
VAL includes data from 3 000 healthcare providers, 2.5 million individuals, and 26 municipalities.
“Data can be ordered at the patient or aggregate level, and linked with hospital data,” says Stockholm-based Dr. Johanna Simin, Lead RWE Epidemiologist at Medaffcon.
Real-world research data from VAL is acquired through the Stockholm Center for Health Data. Center for Health Data coordinates data acquisition between data owners and data users. The Center also verifies the ethical approval of studies, scientific credibility, and data security.
Medaffcon is running a lung cancer research project in the Stockholm Region. It utilises data from the VårdAnalysdataLager (VAL) data lake.
“This project provides an in-depth understanding of lung cancer patients, such as the number of patients, risk factors, including smoking status, pathology and histology information, treatments, outcomes, and health care utlization related costs,” says Dr. Johanna Simin, Lead RWE Epidemiologist at Medaffcon.
Medaffcon Oy, founded in 2009, provides research, expert services and consultancy to meet the needs of the pharmaceutical industry and healthcare sector. Our services combine strong medical and health economics expertise with modern data science. Our key areas of expertise are Real-World Evidence (RWE) research based on real-life data, as well as medical and market access expert and consulting services. The quality and scope of Medaffcon’s services are built on high-level content and process expertise, alongside a strong collaboration network within the pharmaceutical industry, healthcare, academia, and research communities. Medaffcon operates in Finland and Sweden, and through collaboration networks in other Nordic countries. The company employs some 30 experts. Since 2017, Medaffcon has been a subsidiary of Tamro Oyj and is part of the PHOENIX group, which is a leading provider of healthcare services in Europe.
A real-world evidence (RWE) study on the treatment of metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) has provided new insights into the therapeutic strategies for mCRPC. The analysis was based on data from 2,500 patients treated in Finland.
The lymphoma research project has proven to be an exceptionally versatile source of new knowledge. The project includes at least two doctoral researchers, and its results are expected to generate well over ten scientific articles.
5th Nordic RWE and AI conference is organized by University of Helsinki and Åbo Akademi University. Register to the event here!
Country Director Sweden
M.Sc (Econ.) & M.Sc (Health Econ)
+46 73 447 47 27
lisse-lotte.hermansson@medaffcon.se
Lisse-Lotte started at Medaffcon 1st of October 2024. Previously she was at a Swedish-German company as CSO Chief Scientific Officer, consulting European companies about Nordic health data opportunities and market access. She has a M.Sc (Econ.) from Helsingin School of Economics and a M.Sc (Health Econ) from Karolinska. Additionally a Ph.D student at the University of Turku in Health Economics. She has obtained a long experience from global pharma and medtech. She has lived over 20 years in Sweden.
The current development gives new possibilities to utilise data. With AI we can produce synthetic data and build digital twins that can actually support drug development and support healthcare providers. Innovative solutions are only useful if they are adopted to daily practice.
Old ways of working will vanish and RWD will be acknowledged as an excellent option or support for RCTs. As RWD is enabling more cost-effective evidence generation for new treatments. Treatments need to be more personalised so that the right drugs, diagnostics and devices are used for the right patients at the right time.
Sr. Scientific Advisor
RWE Lead
PhD
+358 50 345 2393
mariann.lassenius@medaffcon.fi
Mariann joined Medaffcon’s team in 2016 after finishing her PhD. The transition to real world evidence (RWE) research was a natural continuum to her previous research career. Through RWE studies, she has had the privilege to gain a broad insight into working with different stakeholders within the healthcare field. The vast proportion of her days goes towards interacting with clients, planning and performing RWE studies, and supporting Medaffcon’s RWE team. Subjects that keep her work interesting are the vast variability of customers and projects, problem-solving, and interacting with people.
“The number of RWE studies has increased since stakeholders within the healthcare industry have an increasing demand for knowledge-based decision making tools that need to be fulfilled. The future, therefore, has an ever-increasing emphasis on RWE”.