On Sunday, 8th September 2024, the 2nd Stakeholder Meeting of the REDDIE project took place at the IFEMA Convention Centre in Madrid. During the event, our tenure-track researcher and PI, Martina Vettoretti, presented the activities related to Work Package 5 (WP5), Advanced Methodological Frameworks for Enhancing Clinical Trials with Real-World and Virtual Evidence, for which our group is the leader.
The presentation focused on the progress made in two key methodological tasks. The first is the enhancement of methodologies for conducting retrospective observational studies, where we have performed a systematic review to identify and evaluate available methods on a set of artificial datasets. This work aims to define guidelines for selecting appropriate methods in various contexts and develop a fully-automated analysis pipeline to improve reproducibility and scalability.
The second task involves advancing tools for building data-driven simulation models. These models are becoming increasingly important as the simulated data they can create provide a complementary perspective to real-world data and clinical trial data. Simulated data can be generated using computational models, such as dynamic Bayesian networks (DBNs), a technique in which our group has both methodological expertise and practical experience. Within the REDDIE project, we are advancing the use of DBNs to simulate long-term outcomes in patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes, leveraging RWD sourced from national diabetes registries to build more accurate models.
These efforts will ultimately contribute to more personalised approaches in diabetes management, while also improving the scalability and robustness of the simulation models used in healthcare research.
We extend our gratitude to the organisers for a well-executed and insightful meeting, and for the valuable feedback received from key stakeholders, whose input is essential to the success of this project.
