Consensus Conference
A Consensus Conference will be held, to establish whether it is possible to elaborate a standardized operating protocol for the management and use of Administrative Electronic Databases and Health Databases as a source of reliable epidemiological information for effective health policy.
The Consensus Conference will concern:
  • characterization of Administrative Electronic Database and Health Database features and classification;
  • review of barriers to the full exploitation of already collected data for epidemiological and health policy uses;
  • National and European laws concerning data handling and protection of privacy, and provisions of law to be met for epidemiological and health policy uses;
  • methods and approaches to linkage of data comprised in databases (record linkage, RL) and to anonymization, also in view of the imminent official definition of a "Univocal Patient Identification Code" by the Ministry of Health.
 
A Consensus Conference is a well-defined, structured process aimed at definition of agreed guidelines [SNLG 2013]. The participating bodies in this Consensus Conference are:
  • the Promoter:  The Italian Society for Medical Statistics and Clinical Epidemiology; the Executive Committee has been identified as Promoting Committee and will act as a steering committee, appropriately including all stakeholders in the Consensus Conference;
  • the Scientific and Technical Committee: composed of experts selected by the Promoter, will write the Conference Protocol and the questions to be submitted to the Jury Panel;
  • the Jury Panel: a multidisciplinary panel of experts also selected by the Promoter, independent from the Scientific and Technical Committee, that will review all the evidence, finalize the Guideline and prepare the Consensus Statement.
 
One or more Working Groups of experts will support the Scientific and Technical Committee in writing reports and drafting guidelines for the Consensus Conference.
 
The final results of the Consensus Conference would be a Consensus Statement, and a validated Guideline on the epidemiological use of Administrative Electronic Databases and Health Databases for health policy in Italy.