At the caféMED seminar on Monday evening, Dr Andrea Woolner (Clinical Senior Lecturer) and Katie Wilde (Head of Digital Research & Grampian Data Safe Haven Director) gave a fascinating talk on the Aberdeen Maternity and Neonatal Database, and the Grampian Data Safe Haven, that enables research using this database and many others.
Andrea described how the Aberdeen Maternity and Neonatal Database, set up in 1949, has been used for groundbreaking research that has improved our understanding of pregnancy complications. For example, researchers have used the database to study whether there is an inherited predisposition to preeclampsia, preterm delivery, and miscarriage; they have looked at the effect of maternal smoking and air pollution on reproductive outcomes; and they have built prediction models for live births from IVF treatment.
The Aberdeen Maternity and Neonatal database is an amazing resource that is accessible to researchers thanks to the Grampian Data Safe Haven. Katie explained that this a Trusted Research Environment (TRE), a secure and controlled platform where researchers can access health data while ensuring ethical practices. She described the robust measures that are in place to safeguard sensitive data, enabling researchers to do their work without compromising confidentiality.
The engaging discussion offered valuable insights into the evolving landscape of secure research. Artificial Intelligence and genomic data have great potential for scientific research and precision medicine, but pose their own challenges to TREs. To address these challenges, Katie emphasized that ongoing collaboration is required involving the scientific community, policymakers, and technology developers, but also patients and the public.