Creating a health informatics data resource for hearing health research

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Audiology Research
• Data Science in Healthcare

Background:

• The UK National Institute of Health and Social Care Research (NIHR) Health Informatics Collaborative (HIC) for Hearing Health was established to centralize hearing health data.
• The initiative aims to address research questions by curating routinely collected hearing health information.
• This study outlines priority research areas, governance, and data integration methods for hearing health.

Purpose of the Study:

• To define priority research areas in hearing health.
• To describe the governance structure of the NIHR HIC for Hearing Health.
• To demonstrate the integration of hearing health data into a common data model using pure tone audiometry (PTA) as a case study.

Main Methods:

• Key research aims in hearing health were identified.
• The governance structure for the NIHR HIC for Hearing Health was established.
• The Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership (OMOP) was selected as the common data model for a case study.

Main Results:

• A data architecture was developed to facilitate data flow from electronic patient record systems to research systems.
• The OMOP common data model was used to standardize hearing health data, including pure tone audiometry (PTA).
• Rich datasets were successfully collated from multiple centers through the OMOPification process.

Conclusions:

• Priority research areas for routinely collected hearing health data have been identified.
• The study demonstrates successful integration and standardization of multi-center hearing health data into a common data model.
• This national initiative encourages broader participation and data utilization to advance UK hearing research and patient care.