Joining the global conversation of real-world evidence supporting the COVID-19 response

Discover-NOW, the Health Data Research Hub for Real World Evidence, are proud to announce we are collaborating globally to harness real-world data research to help inform the international response to the COVID-19 emergency.

Through our partnership with NorthWest EHealth the Hub are joining nearly 50 organisations participating together in the the COVID-19 Diagnostics Evidence Accelerator, a collaboration to advance the worldwide development of diagnostics into COVID-19 through real-world data.

Lead by the Reagan-Udall Foundation for the FDA together with Friends of Cancer Research, this initiative sees the Hub join a unique community of other leading experts in real-world health data aggregation and analytics to share insights, compare results, and support to answer key questions about COVID-19 diagnostics as quickly as possible.

This collaboration is a fantastic opportunity for Discover-NOW to share at a larger scale the learnings of our newly established COVID-19 North West London Data Prioritisation Group and demonstrate the power of the COVID-19 specific depersonalised data set. This new data set accessed, through the Hub and NIHR Imperial BRC,  in secure high-performance environments supports researchers with both operational and research COVID-19 requests to push forward their work as quickly and smoothly as possible.

Amanda Lucas, Programme Director, Discover-NOW said:

“At Discover-NOW we know the power that real-world data has in supporting the COVID-19 sector wide response to ensure that patients receive the best care as quickly and safely as possible. Being part of this global conversation demonstrates the rich data assets and expertise that we have available through our Hub for this vital research. We welcome being part of the COVID-19 Diagnostics Evidence Accelerator giving us the opportunity to learn, share and scale the insight gained through our securely governed research environments.”

 Notes

About the COVID-19 Diagnostics Evidence Accelerator

Nearly 50 organizations have participated in initial meetings to identify strategies to answer fundamental questions about test performance and the role that real-world data can contribute. The Diagnostics Evidence Accelerator builds on the framework and methodologies already in place for the COVID-19 Therapeutics Evidence Accelerator launched in April. Contributing researchers engage in weekly meetings to present and critically discuss findings from different data sources as well as work closely with the conveners to develop key research questions that multiple teams can address

simultaneously. Initial activities include (1) rapidly finalizing a list of core data elements; (2) identifying those critical to answering the primary questions; and (3) establishing uniform collection parameters. Diagnostics Evidence Accelerator meetings are held weekly with summaries posted at EvidenceAccelerator.org.

About the Reagan-Udall Foundation for the FDA

The Reagan-Udall Foundation for the FDA is an independent 501(c)(3) created by Congress to advance regulatory science to help the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accomplish its mission. The Foundation works to improve health and safety through stakeholder engagement and public-private partnerships that facilitate innovation, foster the use of real-world evidence, and identify modern tools and polices to keep pace with today’s rapidly evolving science.

About Friends of Cancer Research

Friends of Cancer Research (Friends) drives collaboration among partners from every healthcare sector to power advances in science, policy, and regulation that speed lifesaving treatments to patients. For more information, please visit www.focr.org.