Hong Kong medical landmark: Hospital Authority to allow local researchers access to city’s first big data health care platform
- Total of 280 terabytes, or 280,000 gigabytes, of health data from more than 25 years of records will be available
- Data includes medication records and test results, but patients’ personal information to remain private
Faster identification of hip fractures and brain vessel blockages are among the expected benefits of opening up Hong Kong’s first health care big data platform, a project that could help develop smarter systems for frontline medical workers.
Six research projects from local universities have been selected out of 27 applications to gain free access to the big data platform, known as the Hospital Authority Data Collaboration Laboratory, in its pilot stage. The researchers are expected to begin work this month at the Kowloon Bay lab and continue for one year.
“We hope that those new developments will help us take care of patients,” said Dr Cheung Ngai-tseung, head of the Hospital Authority’s information technology and health informatics.
Big data: We’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg
The project came to life after Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said in her 2017 policy address that the authority would establish a big data analytics platform. She said the goal was to identify information that would “support the formulation of health care policies, facilitate biotechnological research, and improve clinical and health care services”.
In Lam’s policy address in October, she said the new platform would allow academic researchers to access the authority’s clinical data. A total of 280 terabytes, or 280,000 gigabytes, of health data from more than 25 years of records are now available through the collaboration lab.
There aren’t many databases in the world that have such detailed data in a single platform
“There aren’t many databases in the world that have such detailed data in a single platform,” said Cheung.
The data includes medication records, laboratory test results, and radiology images that have been stored in the authority’s clinical data system.
Cheung said the authority hoped to scale up the work of the lab by increasing the number of research projects to 10 next year.
To protect patients’ privacy, their personal information – such as names and identity card numbers – have been removed. Researchers can only access the data at the Kowloon Bay lab and are not allowed to take anything away from the facility. A facial recognition access system and internet restrictions are other measures to prevent unauthorised access to the lab.
Dr Keith Chiu Wan-hang, a clinical assistant professor at the University of Hong Kong’s department of diagnostic radiology, is one of the researchers to take part in this collaboration.
Hong Kong health bosses to unleash big data on medical records
His team, which also has members from Polytechnic University and the University of Science and Technology, hopes to develop an artificial intelligence system to detect hip fractures in X-ray images.
Hip fractures are a growing health problem in Hong Kong as the population ages. But Chiu said diagnosing the condition with X-rays, especially in those with minimal displacement, could be challenging.
To develop the smart system, Chiu said his team would review the clinical data of around 250,000 people, including over 1 million X-ray images.
“We hope the system could help frontline staff and reduce their workload,” said Chiu.
Professor Kelvin Tsoi Kam-fai, a scholar from Chinese University with an interest in big data health care research, said he saw the new database as “a good start”.
“In the past we needed to buy data, but now we can work with data with less restrictions,” said Tsoi, who did not apply for access to the big data platform.
He said the demand for big data in the public health sector was huge because the more than 20 years of information helps medical researchers conduct thorough analyses.
