2024-10-10 22:00:00
The Orchid project (Organization of a Network of Hospital Centers Involved in Epidemiological Surveillance and Response to Emergences), coordinated by Public Health France, aims to set up multi-thematic epidemiological surveillance, using data from all the services of the hospitals participating in the network. The network covers all regions in France as well as the French West Indies. On October 9, 2024, the launch meeting of the Orchid project was held in the Agency’s premises, with around a hundred participants representing the members of the Consortium.
Real-time monitoring, a key issue confirmed by the COVID-19 epidemic
The management of the COVID-19 epidemic by the French health authorities has shown the importance of monitoring the dynamics of an emerging phenomenon on a daily basis to better control its spread among the population. Making these indicators available in open data, at sub-municipal geographic levels, also makes it possible to better understand the dynamics of epidemics. Today, if the epidemiological surveillance carried out by Public Health France is based on a multi-source system which integrates data from emergency services, it is important, to have a comprehensive vision, to supplement this hospital surveillance with conventional hospitalizations or other services (particularly in intensive care).
Orchid will fill a missing element in the current surveillance system in France, by making it possible to reactively know the health situation in large French hospitals in terms of morbidity and/or mortality for a range of pathologies. It will also make it possible to prepare for future exceptional health situations and in particular for the emergence of new viruses that could cause a significant burden in terms of morbidity and/or mortality in hospitals.
An innovative project based on hospital data warehouses
The data captured in the context of care within establishments and other health structures are numerous and present significant potential for research, innovation and improvement of care systems and epidemiology. The development of hospital health data warehouses makes it possible to concentrate and organize this data, thus facilitating their use.
Until now, surveillance development strategies have relied either on the adaptation of existing software or on the construction of a new information system. Today, the Orchid project builds on the concept of the secondary use of health data via hospital health data warehouses (EDSH) to improve epidemiological surveillance in hospitals. An EDSH collects and structures medical information from patients attending a healthcare establishment within a single database.
For the first time in France, hospital surveillance will be based on existing data, stored in hospital data warehouses, on a national scale, for a range of pathologies. Orchid will provide a detailed vision of the dynamics of epidemics and a response to exceptional health situations. On the other hand, Orchid’s federated model is innovative in the sense that it is based on a network of hospitals which will each produce epidemiological indicators.
The advantages of relying on the principle of secondary use of data by piggybacking on hospital warehouses are numerous. First of all, an enhancement of existing data rich in information, a reduced demand on the healthcare system by avoiding new entries and a guarantee of the quality of the indicators.
This model must become widespread to strengthen national, regional and European capacities to monitor diseases and to use the health data collected daily by hospitals.
A project responding to national but also European health challenges
Having a vision of the evolution of health phenomena in real time on a European scale is one of the challenges of the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) which has been coordinating an epidemiological surveillance network for more than 15 years. . Without a significant improvement in existing surveillance infrastructure, European Union member states risk facing similar challenges to those seen at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, ECDC and the Regional Office of the World Health Organization agree on the urgency of developing and maintaining integrated surveillance systems for COVID-19, influenza and possibly other respiratory viral infections (such as RSV or new viral diseases of public health concern) within the European Union. This justifies a number of concerted actions by the European Commission to help member states strengthen their surveillance systems.
The actors involved in the Orchid project
The Orchid project is based on a consortium coordinated by Public Health France in which 25 university hospital centers participate (Amiens, Angers, Assistance Publique – Hôpitaux de Paris, Besançon, Bordeaux, Brest, Caen Normandie, Dijon, Grenoble, Guadeloupe, Lille, Limoges, Lyon , Martinique, Metz-Thionville, Montpellier, Nantes, Nancy, Nice, Poitiers, Reims, Rennes, Rouen, Strasbourg, Tours), the Health Data Hub, the Health Data Platform, the University of Bordeaux, and the School Advanced Studies in Public Health.
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