Opening doors to P4 Health: prediction

The perspective of prof. Dr. Wiesje van der Flier, head of clinical research at the Alzheimer Center VU-Amsterdam 

The importance of Health-RI lies in the pooling of all knowledge on data infrastructure, says professor Wiesje van der Flier, head of clinical research at the Alzheimer center Amsterdam. “We always want more, but legislation is becoming increasingly complex. Having a Health-RI on board can be of great help in navigating through such issues.” 

Van der Flier works on the development of individualized prediction models that help determine the probability of progression to dementia for an individual patient, by looking at diagnostic test results such as MRI and PET. An online tool, ADappt, has been developed to facilitate the use of these models in clinical practice. So far, the models have been used on a smaller scale, in specific studies.  

Van der Flier recognizes the value of Health-RI as an advisory body. “In order to scale up our models and extrapolate to a national or even international level, we hope to be able to use advice from Health-RI experts. I aim to set up a national data infrastructure in the near future, that I can use to get input for predicting progression to dementia.  “When I receive the green light for setting up such an infrastructure, I look forward to being advised by Health-RI!”