Almost a year ago, the HARMONY Alliance initiated discussions with the other Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) Big Data for Better Outcomes (BD4BO) projects to collectively participate in data science congresses. The first of these was BioData World 2019 – Europe’s largest congress exploring Big Data in pharmaceutical development and healthcare – held on December 4–5, 2019, in Basel, Switzerland.
The IMI BD4BO Collective comprises five projects:
These projects share common goals, values and target audiences; HARMONY therefore believes in the importance of frequent collaboration to improve health outcomes and healthcare systems in Europe and beyond. Click here to read EHDEN’s report on the involvement of the IMI BD4BO Collective in BioData World 2019.
Sharing ideas and innovating together
The IMI BD4BO Collective participated in panel discussions and dedicated roundtable sessions during BioData World, in order to highlight the success of strong collaborations between academia, industry and patients in large-scale data projects.
Day 1: Two roundtable discussions, which were open to all members of the BioData World Congress, explored the pros and cons of approaches to research used across the BD4BO projects, and the importance of data communities across Europe. Lively debates also took place; topics included how the IMI BD4BO projects could potentially support European health priorities.
Connecting data and clinical research communities
Day 2: The IMI BD4BO Collective hosted a lunchtime panel discussion to share ideas on how to connect data communities with clinical research communities, including those in the field of hematology. The discussion was opened up to other delegates, who shared their opinions on how the integration of these two communities could be achieved in the future.
To conclude the meeting’s activities and spread awareness of the meaningful work being conducted by the the BD4BO Collective, the IMI held a showcase in which representatives of each of the Big Data projects gave an overview of their work, strategies in place to meet their objectives and results that have been generated so far.
We would like to thank all representatives of the IMI BD4BO Collective for their invaluable contribution to this meeting and give special thanks to the HARMONY Partners who attended:
Hear from the IMI BD4BO Collective
Colm Carroll of IMI shares his views on the value of the IMI BD4BO projects:
HARMONY representative Hans Garritzen of MediSapiens describes the greatest challenges associated with creating a data network in Hematologic Malignancies:
Kiliana Suzart-Woischnik of BigData@Heart discusses how their collaboration with EHDEN will enable both projects to meet their goals:
In this video, Anders Bjartell explains how PIONEER hopes to impact patient outcomes in prostate cancer:
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Public-private partnership for Big Data in Hematology
HARMONY and HARMONY PLUS are funded through the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI), Europe's largest public-private initiative aiming to speed up the development of better and safer medicines for patients. Funding is received from the IMI 2 Joint Undertaking and is listed under grant agreement for HARMONY No. 116026 and grant agreement for HARMONY PLUS No. 945406. This Joint Undertaking receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA).
HARMONY Coordination Office
Institute of Biomedical Research of
Salamanca (IBSAL)
Salamanca, Spain
HARMONY Communications
European Hematology Association (EHA)
The Hague, The Netherlands
