EUROPEAN MEDICAL FRAMEWORK FOR ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE

Abstract

The European Medical Information Framework for AD (EMIF-AD, www.emif.eu) was set-up to facilitate studies on predementia AD by enabling optimal use of existing data cohorts. The EMIF-AD platform aims to provide a catalogue with information on study characteristics of cohort studies, a database platform to store and pool data from different cohorts, and access to data from electronic health registries (EHR). EMIF-AD has developed a number of infrastructural tools: 1) a catalogue with metadata of clinical studies on aging and Alzheimer's disease; 2) a database instance on the tranSMART data platform that stores harmonized subject-level data; 3) a ‘switch-box’ that connects local databases to applications that store or search data; 4) harmonized EHRs using the OMOP data model. The catalogue includes currently information on 46 studies that have enrolled 47.000 subjects. The catalogue is accessible after registration (https://emif-catalogue.eu). The catalogue has been used to select 1000 non-demented subjects for multimodality biomarker studies. The tranSMART data-platform contains harmonized data of 10 cohorts including 4000 subjects with information on cognitive, genetic and biomarkers, including high dimensional -omic data. A number of studies are ongoing in EHR data sets. The EMIF-AD platform facilitates data access, data pooling and collaborative studies on early AD. The platform is open for other cohorts to join. EMIF-AD is funded by the EU/EFPIA Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) Joint Undertaking.