Cegedim expands its European THIN database with German real-world data

Cegedim Health Data, European provider of anonymized clinical real-world data (RWD) and real-world evidence (RWE), has announced the extension of its major European real-world database – THIN^® (The Health Improvement Network) – with the addition of German anonymized electronic health records (EHRs). THIN now offers RWD from Europe’s five largest economies to public and private stakeholders to drive research, RWE generation and cutting-edge improvements in patient outcomes.

“RWD from real-life treatments can form new standards to evaluate disease, health status or drug therapy effectiveness, and improve public health in the future,” voiced Ralf Patsch, Head of Cegedim Health Data in Germany. “With the launch of the German THIN database, we offer healthcare stakeholders the opportunity to ensure therapy success and make medicine more predictable.”

The THIN database was previously composed of anonymized longitudinal real-world datasets from the UK, France, Italy, Spain, Belgium and Romania. Now, with the inclusion of anonymized RWD from Germany, it comprises over 69 million EHRs and gives access to a data history of ~30 years, making it an important medical data source for anonymized longitudinal RWD.

“The launch of anonymized German RWD in THIN marks an important milestone on our way to creating a strong European database based on a common data model,” said Gilles Paubert, Global Head of Cegedim Health Data. “It means it is possible to make cross-national comparisons with more than 69 million EHRs in Europe, and obtain precise and reliable answers to all stakeholders’ questions across the value chain: from research and development to market access, medical, health technology assessment and marketing, with the aim of improving public health.”

THIN is built on a common data model to enable easy comparison of information and is recognized for its statistical robustness. The data entering THIN is routinely supplied by a network of voluntary general practitioners and specialists’ practices, strictly in accordance with data protection rules, anonymized at source, and fully GDPR-compliant.

The database is available to all healthcare stakeholders, including pharmaceutical companies, health authorities, research organizations and academic researchers. THIN RWD has already been used in more than 2000 indexed international scientific publications and is being used internationally by health authorities in the UK (NHS and NICE), France (CEPS and ANSM) and by the EMA/ENCePP in Europe.

“RWD continues to gain importance in the US and is also increasingly recognized in Europe for its value in the analysis of drug therapy effectiveness and side effect rates in unselected patient populations outside controlled clinical trials in clinical practice,” commented Marc Freichel from the Institute of Pharmacology at Heidelberg University.