Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Apr 29:12:415-422.
doi: 10.2147/CLEP.S247575. eCollection 2020.

Existing Data Sources for Clinical Epidemiology: The PHARMO Database Network

Josephina G Kuiper  1   2 , Marina Bakker  1 , Fernie J A Penning-van Beest  1 , Ron M C Herings  1   3
Affiliations

Existing Data Sources for Clinical Epidemiology: The PHARMO Database Network

Josephina G Kuiper et al. Clin Epidemiol. .

Abstract

The PHARMO Database Network provides a unique opportunity to gain insight in the complete patient journey and healthcare in the Netherlands. The PHARMO Database Network is a population-based network of electronic healthcare databases and combines anonymous data from different primary and secondary healthcare settings in the Netherlands. Healthcare settings include general practitioners, out-patient and in-patient pharmacies, hospitals and clinical laboratories. Furthermore, databases are linked with external registries such as the Cancer Registry, Pathology Registry and Perinatal Registry. The different data sources are linked on a patient level through probabilistic linkage based on validated algorithms. The longitudinal and ongoing nature of the PHARMO Database Network system enables to follow up more than 10 million residents of the Netherlands for an average of 12 years. Data collection period, catchment area and overlap between data sources differ. Access to the PHARMO Database Network is, by governance regulations of the data collection, restricted to researchers of the PHARMO Institute and academic affiliates. Each data request is checked against privacy and company policies, and requires approval of the privacy and governance board. The terms and conditions and a data application form are available on the PHARMO website (www.pharmo.com).

Keywords: Netherlands; database; electronic health record; observational research; pharmacoepidemiology; record linkage.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

JK, MB, FP and RH are employees of the PHARMO Institute for Drug Outcomes Research. This independent research institute performs financially supported studies for government and related healthcare authorities and several pharmaceutical companies. As this paper uses data from existing publications without any direct enrolment of subjects, ethical approval or informed consent is not necessary according to the Dutch law regarding medical research involving human subjects (WMO), which is enforced by the Central Committee on Research involving Human Subjects (Centrale Commissie Mensgebonden Onderzoek [CCMO]). The authors report no other conflicts of interest in this work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Sex (A) and age (B) distribution of population in the PHARMO Database Network compared to the Dutch population. Notes: (A) dark blue: female, bright blue: male; (B) bright blue: >80 years, purple: >65–80 years, orange: >40–65 years, light blue: >20–40 years, dark blue: 0–20 years.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Herings RMC, Pedersen L. Pharmacy -based medical record linkage systems In: Strom BL, Kimmel SE, Hennessy S, editors. Pharmacoepidemiology, 5th Edition. 5th ed. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.; 2012:270–286.
    1. Netherlands Comprehensive Cancer Organization. Netherlands Cancer Registry. 2018. Available from: www.iknl.nl. Accessed April17, 2018.
    1. Foundation P The nationwide network and registry of histo- and cytopathology in the Netherlands. Available from: www.palga.nl. Accessed 17April 2018.
    1. Perined. 2018. Netherlands Perinatal Registry. Available from: www.perined.nl. Accessed 17April 2018.
    1. Houweling LM, Bezemer ID, Penning-van Beest FJ, Meijer WM, van Lingen RA, Herings RM. First year of life medication use and hospital admission rates: premature compared with term infants. J Pediatr. 2013;163(1):61–66 e61. doi:10.1016/j.jpeds.2012.12.014 - DOI - PubMed