New Frontiers for Pharmacoepidemiology: Using New and Mixed Methods for Data Collection

‎1. Course Aim ‎
This lively course will provide an overview and critical assessment of new approaches to prospective data ‎collection in pharmacoepidemiology, looking beyond electric medical records (EMR) and health insurance ‎claims to direct-to-“patient” data generation and data linkage. Uses of person-generated health data, including ‎smartphone apps, wearables and social media, will be illustrated, with examples from COVID-19, rheumatology, ‎oncology and professional sports. There will be active discussion about the value of these new approaches, ‎when are they feasible and acceptable to patients, frequently encountered challenges, and how to recognize when ‎these approaches are sufficiently fit for a particular objective.‎
‎2. Requisites Statement ‎
Entry level

‎3. Course Objectives‎
‎1)‎ To understand how studies that use prospective data collection, without primary reliance on ‎medical care professionals, and particularly from patient-generated sources and other sources can ‎be designed and used to support research goals ‎
‎2)‎ To recognize the methodologic and operational challenges of various use cases, including linkage ‎of person-generated health data with other real-world data, and review strategies used to address ‎these challenges
‎3)‎ To be aware of the strengths and limitations of these approaches, including the unique perspective ‎that these different tools offer ‎

‎ 4. Syllabus Outline‎
‎1.‎ Opportunities and barriers for collecting and linking patient-generated health data for research, illustrated ‎through examples ‎
‎2.‎ Using person-generated health data to understand long COVID-19 infections and vaccine side effects: ‎Operational and scientific challenges and how they can be addressed
‎3.‎ Game--changing evidence generation: Bringing data sources together for real-time impact
‎4.‎ Experiments in social media to better understand patient experiences and beliefs