UNIverse - Public Research Portal
Project cover

Extracting an analytic cohort using Swiss administrative claims data to evaluate drug use and safety in pregnancy

Research Project
 | 
01.12.2018
 - 01.12.2019

Evidence on drug utilization and safety during pregnancy in Switzerland is sparse. The goal of this 1-year pilot study was to evaluate whether different Swiss data sources (administrative claims data of the Helsana database, inpatient hospital data captured in the Swiss Medical Hospital Statistics,and post-partum care data captured in the Swiss Statistics of Freelance Midwifes) may be used to validly evaluate drug utilization and safety during pregnancy in Switzerland. Therefore, we aimed to extract and validate an analytic cohort of pregnant women linked to their newborns in longitudinal administrative claims data of the largest Swiss health insurance company 'Helsana'. We further aimed to link mothers and children contained in this cohort to data from the Swiss Medical Hospital Statistics (MEDSTAT) as well as to data from the Swiss Statistics of Freelance Midwifes (MID). Both, MEDSTAT and MID, contain additional important information, which are not captured by administrative claims data, such as the exact gestational age at birth, weight and height of the child at birth, APGAR scores, or information on congenital malformations. This analytic cohort will then be the basis of a grant application to the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) for long-term funding of a project to evaluate drug use and safety during pregnancy in Switzerland. During the past 12 months, we have achieved several of our goals: We have established a collaboration with PD Dr. Alice Panchaud, a clinical researcher at the University of Lausanne (Section sciences pharmaceutiques, Secteur Maternité) who is specialized in perinatal clinical pharmacy. Dr. Panchaud will collaborate on the project with us. We have established a collaboration with the analytic research team of the Helsana group, in collaboration with whom we are currently in the process of extracting the analytic cohort. In collaboration with Dr Panchaud and the Helsana Group, we have extracted the Helsana analytic cohort. We have published a study on the use of antiseizure medication during pregnancy in Switzerland. Two more publicatoins are in the pipline (1 is currently submitted, 1 is in review with co-authors). We have also established a collaboration with the Swiss Midwives Association (Schweizerischer Hebammenverband) and have received a dataset for analysis. We are currently undertaking a master thesis with a student with the aim to validate this dataset for research purposes. Results will be published in a peer-reviewed journal. We have developed a linkage algorithm to link the Helsana analytic cohort to the data of the Swiss midwives association and the data of the Swiss Federal Statistical Office (MEDSTAT). However, we still need to clear some legal and practical aspects, before such a linkage can take place. The main reason why it has not happened yet, are concerns over privacy protection by different stakeholders and a locak of a larger framework to guide such an undertaking. Several research groups, including us, are working on advancing this important research field.

Collaborations & Cooperations

2019 - Participation or Organization of Collaborations on a national level
Blozik, Eva, Helsana Group, Research cooperation
2019 - Participation or Organization of Collaborations on a national level
Panchaud, Alice, CHUV, Research cooperation

Funding

Extracting an analytic cohort using Swiss administrative claims data to evaluate drug use and safety in pregnancy

Forschungsfonds (Excellent Junior Researcher) (GrantsTool), 12.2018-12.2019 (13)
PI : Spöndlin, Julia.
CI : Bloechliger, Marlene,Desai, Rishi,Huybrechts, Krista,Marxer, Carole,Meier, Christoph R..

Publications

Spoendlin, Julia et al. (2021) ‘Use of valproate in pregnancy and in women of childbearing age between 2014 and 2018 in Switzerland: a retrospective analysis of Swiss healthcare claims data’, Swiss medical weekly, 151, p. w20386. Available at: https://doi.org/10.4414/smw.2021.20386.

URLs
URLs

Members (6)

Profile Photo

Julia Spöndlin

Principal Investigator
Profile Photo

Carole Marxer

Co-Investigator
MALE avatar

Christoph R. Meier

Co-Investigator
MALE avatar

Krista Huybrechts

Co-Investigator
MALE avatar

Marlene Bloechliger

Co-Investigator
MALE avatar

Rishi Desai

Co-Investigator