Medicon Valley Alliance (MVA) has received 200.000 euro for a new project that will investigate how to combine Danish and Swedish data sources and health registries. The project, which is financed by the EU Interreg Programme, Region Skåne and the Capital Region of Denmark, will focus on data related to breast cancer.

In order to strengthen Medicon Valley’s position in the global competition for talent and capital, the region needs to make full use of its competitive advantages. One such advantage is the comprehensive Swedish and Danish health data registries that can be linked and the possibility to link data between the registries by using the unique social security numbers that exist in the two countries.

“There is a lot of political focus on this issue and broad agreement that better access to health data is a unique possibility for creating growth in Medicon Valley. Researchers from academic institutions and the industry show great interest in using data for research and innovation purposes. However, up until now, neither country has been able to exploit this potential”, says Stig Jørgensen, CEO of Medicon Valley Alliance.

Today there is no complete overview of the available data sources, the types of data these sources contain, who owns the data, if and how researchers can gain access to it, and how to combine all this data.

The new project is called KADABRA (KArtlägning av DAtakällor och register inom BRöstcancerområdet samt barriärer vid Använding). It will map available data sources within breast cancer including barriers to access and coordinate these sources. The project will result in a set of concrete proposals on how to coordinate and provide access to data. It will also suggest actions to overcome these barriers.

“There is a lot of data related to breast cancer in Denmark and Sweden, which is why we have chosen to focus on breast cancer for now. But the idea is that the findings should be applicable on other cancer types and other therapeutic areas at a later stage”, says Stig Jørgensen.