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lmost a quarter of a million Danish citizens is diagnosed with type 2-diabetes while a list of diabetes-associated diseases , which can affect for example heart and kidneys , affect the life quality . That is why the research project Nybrud will be used to investigate whether there are new factors that have an impact on developing diabetes-associated diseases . To do that Nybrud is collecting pro-data via an App . Using the app requires trusts from the citizens to pass on their health data . Both in terms of how the data is being used and handled but also trust in terms of the very private information that is converted into data . MedTech Innovation Consortium are one of the partners on the project and project manager Thomas Holdgård Jensen underlines the societal value of the project :
“ By giving citizens feedback on their own data we examine whether we can motivate and educate them to better handle their disease so they can avoid developing diabetes-associated diseases .”
Clear communication improves trust The research project Nybrud builds on data from the Tværspor database and will be combined with pro-data that citizens will contribute with about , for example , mood , sleep patterns and physical activity . The collection of health data requires that the data will be handled in an ethically responsible way . “ As a citizen you are covered legally about what information we are allowed to gather and how to treat these data . Citizens need to be able to see the value in passing on their data . It has to make sense . That is why we need to be clear in our communication about what types of information the citizens are forwarding and who has access to it ,” says Holdgård Jensen .
Nybrud uses data from Tværspor , which is a big health database , which contain health data from more than 200,000 Danish citizens , and the research project uses AI to find relevant patterns in tearms of developing diabetes related diseases in the database .
To strengthen citizens ’ trust , Holdgård Jensen underlines that in the research project Nybrud they are experimenting with giving feedback to the citizens based on their own data . For example the project measures , how people are coping and participants can follow their progress in an app .
“ Many research projects ask citizens to pass on data . People are generally positive about this when it contributes to research and thereby improvements . In Nybrud we want to communicate directly to the involved parties of the project by telling them what we have learned from the project based on the data that they have given us ,” Holdgård Jensen says .
Thomas Holdgård , project manager , MedTech
The research project Nybrud
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• The purpose of the research project is to give all Danish citizens with type 2-diabetes the opportunity to live a good life with a balance between the highest possible quality of life , optimal treatment of their illness and the greatest possible independence from the health care system .
• The project has a budget of 2.6 million Danish kroner . 1.87 million Danish kroner of the budget have been provided politically by Region Midtjylland ’ s fund for health innovation .
• The partners of the project are Region Midtjylland – IT , Steno Diabetes Center Aarhus and MedTech Innovation Consortium .
• Nybrud operate within the rules of data protection law so that all participants can be sure that their health data are handled correctly and ethically responsibly .
“ By giving citizens feedback on their own data we examine whether we can motivate and educate them to better handle their disease so they can avoid developing diabetes-associated diseases .”
– Thomas Holdgård Jensen
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