ACTIVITIES :: eTen :: Projects :: Projects of the Month :: EUROCET
March 2007 Project of the Month: EUROCET
Issues being addressed
Clear information that cannot be misinterpreted is critical to organ donation and transplantation. At present this information is held within national registries maintained by the Member States. An overall integrated information and communication system could significantly improve the efficiency of organ donation and transplantation in Europe and save many more lives.
The EUROCET project started in September 2005 and established a common registry for the collection of data on organ, tissue and cell donation and transplantation activities across multiple Member States. Citizens and professional users are connected to the portal via Internet through personal computers equipped with a standard web browser.
The project builds on the successes of the EURODONOR project (Belgium, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and UK) and extends this service to six new Member States; Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. This European Donation and Transplant Activity Registry provides up-to-date and reliable information on national organ and transplant databases, and therefore enables operators to improve the matches offered to European citizens.
Objectives of the project
Specific goals of the project are to:
- Define and implement common EU protocols for data acquisition and processing on organs, tissues and cells donation;
- Standardise the terminology used in data collection on organ donation, transplantation and waiting lists and on tissue and cell donation, banking and transplantation;
- Implement methodologies to collect and process data on medical, clinical, social and demographic paths related to donation and transplantation.
- Deliver updated and official information to all European citizens, patients, professional operators and institutions, accessible via Internet in real-time, with interactive and user-friendly tools;
- Increase public awareness and sensibility towards the value of donation at social and human levels;
- Reduce the technological gap across Member States through best practice and know-how sharing, bearing in mind that the exchange of information is a crucial matter in the entire transplant process;
- Facilitate the information flow between experts and raise transparency in every phase of the process;
- Improve co-operation among European countries for building a European culture and deontology towards donation and transplantation;
- Set the grounds for a general improvement of quality and safety in this field.
Services
The online registry helps medical professionals improve patient care while also bringing about common standards within different regulatory and cultural environments.
EUROCET is an integrated system, specifically designed for supporting the collection and analysis of data supplied by the participating countries as well as the delivery of information to the professional users and citizens. Data suppliers are provided with a user ID for accessing the EUROCET system in order to ensure that only authorized users transmit official information to the database. Business intelligence tools are used for supplying reports and the knowledge base. Information provided through the portal has to be compliant with the national regulations regarding privacy and data protection. All data collected is therefore aggregated data or individual anonymous data, which does not require specific security agreements or protection.
Achievements
The creation of a registry was a means to achieve higher value objectives, such as delivering updated and official information to all European citizens, patients, professional operators and institutions. The registry reduces the technological gap between countries with different levels of ICT dependency through a best practice and know-how sharing. It also facilitates the information-flow between experts and raises the transparency in every phase of the process. In this way, the co-operation among European countries for building a European culture and deontology towards donation and transplantation could be improved. This increases public awareness and sensibility towards the value of donation at the social and human level.
Expected benefits by the end of the project
The availability of this data has allowed the creation of a central repository for the European transplantation-related data and access to the official data. The data collected is now comparable, comprehensive and up-to-date. The information is validated; and the outputs of the system are liable to allow for the development and implementation of active relationships, planning of common strategies, more effective “targeted media” campaigns to augment European mass-media efforts, opportunities for synergistic programming and research. From the point of view of an ever increasing transparency and data sharing on donation and transplantation of organs, tissues and cells, this project is also important in the light of the EU Directive on setting standards of quality and safety for the donation, procurement, testing, processing, preservation, storage and distribution of human tissues and cells (2004/23/EC).
The European Internet Portal is accessible to anyone from anywhere with a user-friendly, multilingual and multifunctional interface. Being structured on different information levels, the users can access services customised for different user typologies. They are, on the one hand, citizens and patients that approach the sector for the first time, on the other hand they are experts, who have a deeper knowledge of the sector. Moreover, the harmonized glossary supplied through the portal improves the analysis of comparable data and allows for a clearer comprehension of the terminology used.
Partners
Reference Data
Project's website:
https://www.eurocet.org
Contract Type: Market Validation Project
Start Date: September 2005
End Date: February 2007
Duration: 18 Months
Contact: cnt@iss.it (Alessandro Nanni Costa)