MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit (IEU) Seminar Series

Title: What can electronic health records do to help in disease definition? Case studies from heart failure, atrial fibrillation and acute coronary syndromes.

Abstract: Over the last 10-15 years, the definition of subtypes of heart failure has changed substantially in international consensus guidelines, based on biologic and imaging markers. The same is true for atrial fibrillation, the commonest heart rhythm disorder, where subtypes are defined by underlying aetiology in the latest European guidelines. Even the “Universal definition” of myocardial infarction is now in its fifth iteration. The generalisability and validity of these changing definitions is uncertain for these three diseases, which represent a major proportion of cardiovascular disease globally. Moreover, changing definitions have implications for epidemiologic studies, whether we look at risk factors, comorbidities, incidence or outcome.

 

The use of electronic health records is increasing in clinical practice, particularly in high- and middle-income countries, providing opportunities to representative population studies at-scale. As well as evaluating existing definitions, there are opportunities to discover new subtypes of heart failure and atrial fibrillation. In the BigData@Heart grant (funded by the Innovative Medicines Initiative), Ami leads a work package which uses EHR across European partners to consider the overlap between heart failure, atrial fibrillation and acute coronary syndromes, and to investigate the possibility of new disease phenotypes, using both traditional epidemiologic and machine learning methods. In this talk, Ami will focus on two recent areas of work using electronic health records: (i) aetiologic subtypes, and (ii) machine learning methods to identify disease clusters for risk prediction.

 

Biography: 

Amitava Banerjee is Associate Professor in Clinical Data Science at University College London, and Honorary Consultant Cardiologist at University College London Hospitals and Barts Health NHS Trusts. He is a researcher, educator and clinician with interests spanning data science, cardiovascular disease, global health, training and evidence-based healthcare.

He works across two busy tertiary care settings with both inpatient and outpatient commitments. Although he is subspecialised in heart failure, he has ongoing practice in acute general cardiology and a keen interest in the diagnosis and management of atrial fibrillation. His clinical work very much informs his research and vice versa, whether in the evaluation of medical technology or studies of cardiovascular disease in electronic health records.

Amitava chairs the Emerging Leaders Programme at the World Heart Federation and sits on their Scientific Board. In addition, he is Trustee of the South Asian Health Foundation, panel member at the Science Communication Centre, Editor at Global Heart journal, Associate Editor at BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine, and reviewer for a range of journals and organisations, including European Heart Journal, Heart, BMJ, NIHR and the Commonwealth Scholarships Commission.

All welcome