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Real World Studies in PharmacoEpidemiology, -Genetics, -Economics and -Therapy

Programme
Our research groups
We study the implementation and outcomes of pharmaceutical interventions in the heterogeneity of daily practice, thus contributing to personalized medicine. We develop, validate and apply innovative data methodologies and approaches for research on population and individual level.

In our ageing population, personalized pharmaceutical treatment is increasingly important. Within our programme, we develop and test innovative methods and real world assessments to optimize pharmaceutical treatment. Our main research fields are pharmacoepidemiology, pharmacogenetics, pharmacotherapy and precision drug therapy, quality of drug use, pharmacovigilance and pharmaco-economics.

We maintain large databases and combine those with data from smaller population- or practice-based cohorts and intervention studies

  1. to optimize the efficiency and quality of pharmaceutical interventions;
  2. ​​​​​​​to develop, validate and apply advanced methodologies to generate scientific knowledge on determinants and effects of interventions in routine medical practice, as well as to support policy making.
Relevance

Making pharmaceutical healthcare more efficient and sustainable

Our focus lies on prevention and treatment of disease by medicines, including drugs and vaccines, considering effects on quality of life and costs, clinical management of drug therapy and drug safety, all explicitly as part of healthy ageing.

 

Through our research we increase our knowledge on the use and effects of drugs and vaccines, particularly in vulnerable populations, and improve the quality of life and healthy ageing. Our findings support pharmaceutical decision making from regulatory approval, reimbursement to optimal medication use in daily practice.   

To increase our knowledge and effectively disseminate it, we collaborate across local and international networks (e.g. EU COST Action, MAECON, H2020 STARS) and with practice and policy oriented organisations (e.g. KNMP, CBG-MEB, LAREB). This strategy has contributed to

  • drug regulatory decision making, e.g. focusing on the use of real world data and on patient involvement,
  • the improvement and implementation of new methods in pharmacovigilance, including the use of patient-reported outcomes
  • national practice guidelines, e.g. recommendations for implementing medication deprescribing in elderly patients.

  • We maintain and utilize prescription and healthcare databases with detailed information on medication prescriptions and dispensings in large cohorts, such as the IADB.nl and GIANTT databases. IADB.nl includes an outpatient population of approximately 700,000 persons with data going back to 1994. In 2017, we started the PharmLines initiative, linking the IADB.nl prescription data with data of the Lifelines Cohort study. The GIANTT database includes routinely recorded primary care data for a cumulative cohort of 60,000 people with type 2 diabetes in the Groningen region.  

    Our aim is to facilitate research on medication use and outcomes. More information can be found at the websites of IADB.nl  and GIANTT.