Seven Israeli researchers from Rambam Health Care Campus (Rambam) in Haifa and from the KI Research Institute in Kfar Malal joined another 17 international experts in a groundbreaking study analyzing data from over one million inflammatory bowel disease patients. The study aimed to comprehensively characterize these patients and develop more effective treatment approaches globally.
Recent research could bring new hope to patients suffering from inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Notable for its scale, the data of more than one million IBD patients, including Crohn’s disease and colitis, were examined. Three of the Israel researchers were from Rambam and four from KI, including the lead researcher, Chen Yanover. The researchers were united by two things: their participation in the Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics (OHDSI, pronounced “Odyssey”) initiative, and their passion to develop a more comprehensive dataset to better facilitate IBD diagnoses and treatments.
Given Israel’s relatively small patient population, with fewer than 100,000 individuals diagnosed with IBD, this study presented an extraordinary opportunity to analyze healthcare data on a large scale across a diverse patient population. By incorporating routinely collected data, the researchers were able to examine critical subgroups such as sex, age, ethnicity, treatment regimens, and historical data, enabling more precise and comprehensive analyses.
Dr. Roni Weisshof, an attending physician at Rambam’s Institute of Gastroenterology and a key researcher for the study highlights the study’s importance, stating, “For the first time, we have a global view of the development of IBD, enabling us to distinguish between aspects of the disease influenced by regional factors such as diet, genetics, lifestyle, and healthcare systems, and those that remain consistent across diverse populations.”
The study leveraged information from the Odyssey initiative, a global network of 4,200 clinicians, researchers, and data scientists. Patient privacy is paramount; researchers do not have direct access to the Odyssey database. Instead, they submit queries based on over 1,000 parameters, enabling the rapid generation of anonymized data.
The study also explored rates of surgical intervention based on early diagnosis and new drug therapies. There was no correlation. Significant findings also included a decline in the mean age of IBD diagnosis and a notable increase in documented symptoms of depression and anxiety in the year preceding diagnosis, particularly among women.
This study underscores the importance of large-scale research especially in uncovering new insights into IBD. By using diverse, data and advanced analytics, the researchers demonstrated shifting patterns in diagnosis, setting the stage for more effective treatment strategies and offering hope for improved outcomes and quality of life for individuals living with IBD.
Rambam’s commitment to collaboration and innovation translates into healthcare excellence for the patients of Northern Israel. Through international collaborations like this, Rambam clinician-researchers apply their expertise to enhance treatments and therapies for the community.
Based on an article that first appeared in Globes.
