CO-CONNECT takes on the IPDLN Conference

By Gabriella Linning

Last week, several members of the CO-CONNECT team attended and presented at the 2022 International Population Data Linkage Network (IPDLN) Conference in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Four of our team members – Antony Chuter, Emily Jefferson, Esmond Urwin, Gordon Milligan and Jillian Beggs – spoke at the event, giving engaging and thought provoking presentations about their work on CO-CONNECT. Continue reading to find out more.

Presentation slide from the opening session at the 2022 IPDLN Conference in Edinburgh, Scotland

CO-CONNECT Technical Programme Manager Gordon Milligan, University of Dundee

CO-CONNECT team member Esmond Urwin, University of Nottingham, beginning his presentation on why there should be a standard format datasets for recording COVI D-19 related serology (type of blood testing) data. Find out more below.

Team members Chris Hall (left), Esmond Urwin (middle) and Gordon Milligan (right) enjoying themselves at the IPDLN conference.

CO-CONNECT Research Team Leader Christian Cole presenting on another project he is working on: GRAIMATTER — Group photo of the CO-CONNECT team and colleagues from the University of Dundee's Health Informatics Centre (HIC). From left: Gordon Milligan, Smarti Reel, Emily Jefferson, Shahzad Mumtaz, Chuang Gao, Jenny Johnston, Susan Krueger, Christian Cole and Chris Hall. (Middle) Antony Chuter

Group photo of CO-CONNECT team members with colleagues from the University of Dundee's HIC. — Group photo of CO-CONNECT team members with colleagues from the University of Dundee's Health Informatics Centre. From left: Gordon Milligan, Smarti Reel, Emily Jefferson, Shahzad Mumtaz, Chuang Gao, Jenny Johnston, Susan Krueger, Christian Cole and Chris Hall. (Middle) Antony Chuter

CO-CONNECT Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) Leads Jillian Beggs (left) and Antony Chuter (right) after giving their presentation. — CO-CONNECT Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) Leads Jillian Beggs (left) and Antony Chuter (right) after giving their presentation on how CO-CONNECT team meaningfully incorporated patient and public voices into their work. Read more bellow)

Group photo of CO-CONNECT team members with colleagues from HIC — Group photo of CO-CONNECT team members with colleagues from the University of Dundee's Health Informatics Centre (2). From left: Gordon Milligan, Smarti Reel, Emily Jefferson, Shahzad Mumtaz, Chuang Gao, Jenny Johnston, Susan Krueger, Christian Cole and Chris Hall. (Middle) Antony Chuter

CO-CONNECT Principal Investigator Emily Jefferson as she begins her overview presentation on the CO-CONNECT project and the Cohort Discovery Search Tool. Read below to find out more.

Team members Gordon Milligan (left), Jenny Johnston (middle) and Esmond Urwin (right) enjoying themselves at the IPDLN conference.

Who spoke?

About what?

The COVID - Curated and Open aNalysis aND rEsearCh plaTform (CO-CONNECT)

In this presentation, Emily Jefferson, one of CO-CONNECT’s Principal Investigators, introduced both the CO-CONNECT project and the Health Data Research Innovation Gateway’s Cohort Discovery Search Tool to her colleagues at the IPDLN conference.

Here, Emily gave attendees an overview of the work done by the project as well as the capabilities of the Cohort Discovery Search Tool, providing insight as to how this data infrastructure will promote future COVID-19 research by making UK COVID-19 data FAIR – Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable.

Augmenting laboratory COVID serology granularity for SARS-CoV-2 reporting

Here, CO-CONNECT team member Esmond Urwin made the argument for why more detailed quantitative (number-based) data should be recorded when serological samples are tested in laboratories.

Esmond highlighted that qualitative (description-based) data alone does not provide detailed enough data for researchers to understand how prevalent the SARS-CoV-2 virus is among the UK population.

Therefore, Esmond suggested that there be a minimum dataset – a universal example that outlines what should be recorded and how – is required to support standardised data reporting.

Developing a new Governance Approval Process to support federated discovery and meta-analysis of data across the UK through the CO-CONNECT project

Gordon gave a presentation discussing the different governance approaches to get approval for federated data projects (such as CO-CONNECT) for both consented and unconsented data. According to Gordon, his presentation was well received with many follow-up questions being asked.

Collaborating with patient and public members in developing the COVID - Curated and open analysis and research platform (CO-CONNECT)

With our Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) Coordinator Tracy Jackson on leave, CO-CONNECT’s joint PPI Leads Jillian Beggs and Antony Chuter filled in to tell the attendees of the IPDLN conference about their experience working with the project.

Here, the two leads spoke about how the team were able to create an innovative approach to ensuring public voices are heard and acted upon within data linkage networks. To our knowledge, CO-CONNECT was the only project to have PPI voices heard during the course of the three day conference.