Saskia Haitjema

Role: Keynote
Affiliation: UMC Utrecht

Biography:

Saskia Haitjema (1988) studied Medicine at Utrecht University. After finishing her studies, she gained clinical experience as a surgical resident before starting as a PhD candidate at the Laboratory of Experimental Cardiology of the University Medical Center Utrecht in 2013. She studied sex-differences in atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, mainly by interrogating large datasets of (epi)genetic data. As a postdoctoral researcher at the Laboratory of Clinical Chemistry and Haematology, she works in the field of clinical data science with large datasets of real-world data. Combining her clinical expertise and data science expertise, she currently co-leads the corporate programme Applied Data Analytics in Medicine in the UMC Utrecht.

Abstract:

Big Data and Data Analytics in healthcare. Hype, useful, revolution or evolution? There is a lot of talk, media coverage and buzz around the topic, but what does it actually mean in real life clinical care in a hospital? To gain insights in how data analytics in clinical care could work, the University Medical Center Utrecht started at the corporate level 4 pilot projects under the name ADAM: Applied Data Analytics in Medicine. Not a research project, but an actual clinical question is the starting point of the pilots. We tried to bring these 4 pilots to a clinical solution in a period of 5 months, using data analytics. We worked in an agile way, short cycles with all shareholders at the table: patients, clinicians, data scientists, data managers and the project leads. Because we cannot do this all by ourselves, we collaborated with several companies with an expertise in data analytics. Together we work on these pilots to improve healthcare towards a more personalised approach for each individual patient. Our ideas and approach in ADAM, our lessons learned and some of the outcomes of the pilots will be presented.