Payers Expect Clearer Demonstration of Health Technology Benefits
Sweden and Finland are leaders in developing and applying health technology and provide ideal environments for conducting Health Technology Assessments (HTA) for medical devices.
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Medaffcon Brings RWE from the Nordic Markets for Global Use
Medaffcon's operations in Sweden are well-established and growing, offering pharmaceutical companies RWE studies and Market Access services delivered by Data Scientists, Market Access experts, and RWE specialists working together. A key therapeutic area is oncology.
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RWE Study: Prognosis for Multiple Myeloma has Improved, but Prevalence is Increasing
The prognosis for patients with multiple myeloma (MM) has improved as treatments have advanced, but the disease remains incurable. The prevalence of the disease is increasing in Finland as the population gets older. This is evident from a recently published nationwide retrospective study based on real-world evidence (RWE).
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RWE Study Shows: New Diabetes Medications Were Actively Adopted Between 2012–2019 – The Results Are Promising
The adoption of new diabetes medications in Finland was active between 2012 and 2019, according to an RWE (Real World Evidence) study published in May 2024. The study was conducted by Medaffcon in collaboration with the pharmaceutical company Sanofi.
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Medaffcon is Preparing to Conduct RWE Studies in Neurology and Psychiatry
In the coming years, breakthroughs in neurological and psychiatric drug research are expected to change treatment practices and significantly improve patients’ quality of life. Medaffcon is contributing to this development by conducting, for example, RWE studies (Real World Evidence).
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Medaffcon’s scientific expert’s day includes a variety of activities tailored to the needs of the pharmaceutical industry
Medaffcon experts are versatile professionals who adapt to customer needs. In this article, one of them, Liisa Ukkola-Vuoti, a senior scientific advisor at Medaffcon, describes her work over two weeks. Liisa is also one of the writers for the Health Data Site by Medaffcon.
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New RWE Study Indicates Poor Prognosis for NSCLC Patients Despite Targeted Therapies
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in Finland, with a particularly poor prognosis for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). It is often diagnosed at an advanced stage when treatment options are limited. A recently published retrospective registry-based real-world evidence (RWE) study on KRAS-mutated NSCLC patients in Finland addressed this issue.
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An Epidemiologist / Scientific Advisor
Medaffcon Oy is an Espoo, Finland, based Real World Evidence, Medical Affairs and Market Access consulting company providing services in Finland and Sweden. As of May 2024, Medaffcon’s personnel consists of some 30 full-time employees. Medaffcon’s core competences are our strong medical, scientific, industrial and health economic knowledge and experience, outstanding process and project management and our wide-ranging cooperation network. We at Medaffcon dive into our clients' challenges and customise practical solutions for them.
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Patient Dynamics Tool by Medaffcon Helps to Focus and Find the Right Actions
Are you employed in the pharmaceutical industry and seeking insights into your product's position within the Finnish market? Then Patient Dynamics is the ideal tool for you. Developed by Medaffcon, Patient Dynamics caters to the needs of pharmaceutical companies by providing precise information for sales and marketing decision-making.
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EHDS makes Finland an even more attractive place for RWE research
Finland will become an even more attractive place for conducting RWE (real-world evidence) research when it becomes a seamless part of the European Health Data Space (EHDS). Thus, health data can be used more efficiently across the European Union (EU), and datasets can be combined on an EU-wide basis.
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The OMOP Data Model Helps Standardize Healthcare Data
A key challenge in using real-world healthcare data (RWD) is how to standardize data across different healthcare providers and countries.
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The Real-World Data (RWD) from the HUS Data Lake Provides Clinicians with Valuable Information about Treatment Outcomes
Hospital data lakes offer clinicians diverse real-world data (RWD) that supports their work. Dr. Heikki Ekroos, Chief Physician of Pulmonary Diseases at Helsinki University Hospital (HUS) Porvoo Hospital, presented real-world evidence (RWE) studies that were based on HUS data lakes data at Medaffcon’s EMMA client event.
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Sweden is a Rich Source of Real-World Evidence (RWE) and Health Data – Together with Finland, it Offers a Population of 15 Million
Real-world data (RWD) created in Finnish healthcare is comprehensive and high-quality. Sweden, another Scandinavian country, also offers high-quality healthcare data for real-world evidence generation.
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Renewable drug therapy challenges the current complex drug evaluation system
“Renewable drug therapy challenges the current complex drug evaluation system,” states Lauri Pelkonen, a leading expert at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health (STM). For this reason, the evaluation activity is being reformed to better respond to changes in the operating environment.
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The EU introduces changes to the assessment of medicines: EU HTA application in evaluations will gradually start next year
The EU introduces changes to the assessment of medicines: EU HTA application in evaluations will gradually start next year
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Finland: An Ideal Environment for the Pharmaceutical Industry’s Real-World Evidence (RWE) Studies
Pharmaceutical companies should consider Finland when evaluating locations for Real-World Evidence (RWE) studies. The country boasts numerous strengths that make it an outstanding choice for real-world data-based (RWD) research. “Finland’s strong tradition and extensive experience in utilizing healthcare registries for research make it unique,” says Dr. Riikka Mattila, Scientific Advisor at Medaffcon.
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Heikki Koski Appointed as CEO of Medaffcon Oy
Heikki Koski, currently the Service Business and Development Director at Tamro, has been appointed as the CEO of Medaffcon Oy, effective from April 1, 2024. Medaffcon is a subsidiary of Tamro Oyj. The current CEO of Medaffcon, Jarmo Hahl, will continue to play a pivotal role in shaping the company's future in his new position leading the consulting business.
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Medaffcon has in-depth Understanding of the Needs of the Pharmaceutical Industry –
Selecting the right interactions is a key factor for success. Therefore, the client should also consider how well the partner understands the pharmaceutical industry's needs. When the partner has extensive hands-on experience from the industry, these irreplaceable insights enable the partner to guide the project at different strategic levels, ensuring that the client’s various needs can be identified and met.
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The OMOP (Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership) Common Data Model (CDM) facilitates the utilization of healthcare data – Medaffcon was involved in a Finnish OMOP pilot study
In healthcare, there is a vast amount of data being generated and processed. Sometimes, its utilization is cumbersome because the data is scattered, and its analysis requires a lot of preprocessing.
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Real-World Evidence (RWE) Influences Treatment Practices – Developing the Current Care Guidelines for Heart Failure
My list of publications includes over 20 peer-reviewed scientific articles. One of them is a special one because the Finnish Current Care Guidelines mention it for heart failure. This blog discusses the impact of research by Medaffcon on treatment practices.
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We are remodeling the Health from Data Blog – The new name is “Health Data Site by Medaffcon”, and it will have a fragment in our Newsletter
We are remodeling the Health from Data Blog - The new name is "Health Data Site by Medaffcon", and it will have a fragment in our Newsletter
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The new RWE study indicates significant potential for improvement in treating adults with Short Bowel Syndrome (SBS-IF)
A study published in January 2024 in the Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology has revealed that the treatment of adults with Short Bowel Syndrome (SBS-IF) clearly has significant room for improvement. Patients require extensive amounts of healthcare services, and their mortality rate is elevated.
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Setting up a Nordic RWE study in Sweden – fast access to patients’ numbers and distribution across Sweden
Sweden's publicly funded healthcare system and universal access to specialized health care make the data derived from Sweden broadly generalizable, covering diverse populations including different ethnic backgrounds.
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Finnish hospital data lakes can be adapted to analysis of complex treatment patterns, outcomes and healthcare burden in multiple myeloma
Our latest multiple myeloma publication describes how complex multiple myeloma treatment patterns were assembled from data available in the Helsinki University Hospital data lake, Finland, how the treatments have changed in 2013–2019, and what the estimated treatment costs are in multiple myeloma.The study published online in October 2023 was carried out by the experts at Medaffcon Oy, Sanofi Oy, and Helsinki University Hospital, Finland.
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RWE from Southwest Finland shows readiness to adopt new medications, utility of medical data
Utilising the data lake of the Hospital District of Southwest Finland (TYKS), Medaffcon, Pfizer and TYKS have examined the clinical adoption of new medications for advanced renal cell carcinoma and the utility of data extracted without extensive manual extraction.
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Manual extraction gathered information on the drug treatment for ulcerative colitis
Hospital data lakes are a central source of information in Medaffcon's studies, and often, data retrieval can be automated. However, what happens when more complex matters need to be extracted from the databases? In such cases, manual extraction is used, says Medaffcon's Scientific Advisor, Riikka Mattila
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Medaffcon’s Expertise and Commitment Driving Customer Success in 2023
Medaffcon takes pride in its dedicated team of RWE and Data Analysts, who bring with them a wealth of expertise and a decade-long track record.
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Leveraging Swedish Real-World Health Data for Research and Development
Swedish real-world health data, a recent addition to the in-house capabilities of Medaffcon, offer unique possibilities for measuring disease burdens and determinants, the effects of different exposures, and the outcomes of various health conditions in a population of almost 10.5 million people.
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This Christmas, Medaffcon is participating in Mieli Ry’s charity initiative aimed at improving the well-being of children and young people
This Christmas, Medaffcon is participating in Mieli Ry's charity initiative aimed at improving the well-being of children and young people
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Team Medaffcon took part of at ISPOR Europe 2023
The ISPOR Europe conference in 2023, held in Copenhagen, gathered a record number of participants. The Bella Center hosted HEOR professionals eager to learn about the latest trends in their field. The use of real world evidence (RWE) in health technology assessment (HTA) and regulatory evidence generation played a crucial role in the conference program, alongside valuable interpersonal interactions which were also in an important part of the event.
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Matching techniques go beyond virtual control arms, reminds senior data scientist at Medaffcon
Real-world data (RWD) can, however, be utilised also in a variety of non-clinical medical and pharmaceutical studies to compare aspects such as treatment outcomes and resource utilisation between different geographies and treatment options, reminds Samuli Tuominen, senior data scientist at Medaffcon.
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The leading European HEOR meeting ISPOR Europe 2023 of the year is approaching
Coming up soon, Copenhagen will be the center of health economics as more than five thousand pharmaceutical and healthcare professionals gather for the ISPOR conference. ISPOR has been well known, especially among health economists. However, this years’ top trends real-world data (RWD) and real-world evidence (RWE) attract even wider audience.
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Characteristics of T2-low asthma revealed with Finnish real-world data
AstraZeneca Finland, Medaffcon and clinical experts have investigated what is the rarer endotype of severe asthma using biomarker data obtained from the data lake of Turku University Hospital (TYKS), Auria.
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Protected: Health Economist / Market Access Manager
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
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Medaffcon’s matching know-how on display in immunosuppressant study
Samuli Tuominen, senior data scientist at Medaffcon, has co-authored a study that utilised propensity-score matching to compare the performance of two immunosuppressive drugs in patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis after liver transplantation. Medaffcon has helped to validate the superiority of tacrolimus over cyclosporine as a post-liver transplantation immunosuppressive regimen for patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis, a rare immune-mediated cholestatic liver disease.
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Dr. Essi Havula joins Medaffcon – Bridging science with healthcare
Dr. Essi Havula has done an impressive international career as a researcher and top scientist. She joins Medaffcon team to strengthen the scientific possibilities of utilizing real-world-data and evidence.
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Medaffcon strengthens data science team as customer demand grows
Medaffcon in September added two new members to its team of data scientists, preparing itself for an era where pharmaceutical development and innovation are driven increasingly by real-world data. “Real-world evidence is getting bigger and bigger and we’re getting more and more research assignments, so we need smart minds and quick fingers to do all the data science,” sums up Iiro Toppila, data analysis lead at Medaffcon.
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Atopic dermatitis is often under-treated despite various co-morbidities, reveal real-world data
Experts at Medaffcon have perused volumes of real-world data on patients with atopic dermatitis to provide new insights into co-morbidities and treatment patterns associated with the chronic skin condition.
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Finnish healthcare data helps cast light on burden of paediatric short-bowel syndrome
Experts from Medaffcon, Takeda and the Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa (HUS) have concluded an extensive study into paediatric short-bowel syndrome based on information from patient records.
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Multiregister study in monitoring the burden of sexually transmitted diseases in Finland
Our first national multiregister study on sexually transmitted diseases provides important information on the burden of genital warts (GWs) in Finland.
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Potential of Swedish healthcare data illustrated by new study
Sweden’s abundance of high-quality digital healthcare data has enabled what is surely one of the most exhaustive study of mortality associated with Clostridioides difficile infections (CDI) in the world.
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Short-term sick leaves accentuated in chronic diseases – register studies provide new information
Studies mapping short-term absences provide new information on the burden caused by diseases for healthcare services and the society.
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Medaffcon unlocks new research opportunities with Swedish real-world health data
Research based on Finnish and Swedish real-world health data can be generalised also to other settings and populations, says Dr. Johanna Simin, real-world epidemiologist at Medaffcon.
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Medaffcon taps experienced pharmacoepidemiologist as lead real-world epidemiologist in Sweden
Joining Medaffcon enables Dr. Johanna Simin to leverage her expertise to advance real-world data use and evidence-driven health. Medaffcon, in turn, can augment its in-house capabilities with the high-quality digital healthcare data found in Sweden.
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Medaffcon answers call for its solutions-oriented data approach in Sweden
Medaffcon has added Swedish healthcare registries to its capabilities as it continues to pursue growth and facilitate data utilisation by providing pharmaceutical companies access to rich and relevant healthcare data.