Promoting reuse of research data – Scania Metadatabase for Epidemiology (SME)

Published: 2015-06-17

A very large number of epidemiological studies have been conducted at Lund University and Region Skåne. The underlying data material is a valuable resource that can be used for new studies with adjoining or completely new research questions, provided that an ethical permission is given.

The purpose of the Scania Metadatabase of Epidemiology (SME) was to invent and produce a catalog with the epidemiological studies that have been collected in the Southern health care region. SME was initiated in the fall of 2012 and it currently comprises information about 50 studies, including a total of just over 680,000 study participants as well as biological samples from more than 217,000 individuals from 21 of the studies.

The majority of the studies are population-based studies (n = 28) that cover several different areas, e.g. the older generation’s health, the relationship between diet and subsequent cancer risk or cardiometabolic diseases or drug habits of the students in Scania.

Fifteen of the studies are patient-based and they focus on including patients with among other diseases diabetes or various forms of cancer. Of the remaining
studies four are occupational based and three fall under the category “other studies”.

We expect that the metadatabase will be used as a source of inspiration for new research and open up new research partnerships by visualizing the research groups
and their publications.

By: Johanna Ekström
Faculty of Medicine, Lund University
BBMRI.se Service Center for Southern Sweden