Improving the identification, access and assessment, and (re)use of health data within the European Union

During its project lifetime, the European Medical Information Framework (EMIF) has developed and made the EMIF Data Catalogue publicly available to the research community. The EMIF Data Catalogue is a text-book example of EMIF’s mission to improve identification, access and assessment, and (re)use of health data within the European Union.

The EMIF Catalogue allows users to explore population-based (e.g. Electronic Health Record (EHR)-derived, Regional databases, etc.) and cohort-derived (predominately within Alzheimer’s Disease) data sources who have consented to provide such information for the purposes of bona fide researchers wanting to explore potential data partners for studies. As of June 2018, 18 population-based and 55 cohort-based data partners are contained within the Catalogue, from across 14 countries collaborating within EMIF. There are currently over 800 unique users and the Catalogue is home to 8 different communities so far (eg. EPAD, MOCHA, ADVANCE, …). The latter clearly indicates that there is a tremendous need for the EMIF Catalogue.

The Catalogue initially offered only high-level meta data information on the data source, but additional tools have been developed and installed to allow data source suitability evaluation and to initiate new research studies with the data sources in a secure environment.

We would welcome enquiries related to the Catalogue, and indeed any feedback from users following access approval (questions or feedback can be via this site, or from within the Catalogue).

Access to the Catalogue is via the following steps:

  • Please access the Catalogue here.
  • When accessing the Catalogue log-in front-end page, please click “Create Account” and follow instructions provided, then Sign In.
  • Following Sign In, a user will be able to access the EHR-derived and/or cohort-derived communities pending approval by the Community Manager.
  • User support is via the left-hand navigation panel, inclusive of a help function.

On behalf of EMIF we hope that the EMIF Catalogue will be a significant asset to the EU research community, and we look forward to its continued development and use, eventually within a broader research platform and communities.