12th European Public Health Conference 2019–01: Parallel Programme
align health-related big data research with established regula-
tory frameworks such as data protection regulation, regulation
on human subject research and ethics review. Based on this
analysis, suggestions will be made on how to maximise the
benefits of big data for public health while minimizing ethical
risks.
Cloud-computing and precision medicine: Big data
offers big opportunities
Alain April
A April1
1
Department of Software and IT Engineering, ETS University, Montreal,
Canada
Contact: alain.april@etsmtl.ca
Research on large shared medical datasets and data-driven
research are gaining fast momentum and provide major
opportunities for improving health systems as well as
individual care. Such Open Data can shed light on the causes
of disease and effects of treatment including adverse reactions
side-effects of treatments, while also facilitating analyses
tailored to an individual’s characteristics, known as persona-
lized or precision medicine. Precision medicine treatments will
take personalization to the next level and be effective for
individual patients based on their genomic, environmental,
and lifestyle factors. High-throughput sequencing technologies
and open databases have made precision medicine possible but
up to now only large research centres could handle the large
scale technology needed for its processing. Aside from issues
such as user trust, data privacy, transparency over the control
of data ownership, and the implications of data analytics for
personal privacy with potentially intrusive inferences, recent
advances by Berkeley using open source Big Data technologies
and Cloud Computing Services has allowed precision medicine
studies to be conducted by small and agile research labs and
researchers around the world.
4.D. Workshop: MigHealthCare - strengthening
Community Based Care to minimize health
inequalities
Organised by: Mig-HealthCare consortium
Chair persons: Pania Karnaki - Greece, Allan Krasnik - EUPHA (MIG)
Contact: alejandro.gil.salmeron@uv.es
Over the past few years, a large number of refugees, migrants
and asylum seekers have reached the south-eastern points of
entry of the EU, challenging health and social systems of
bordering countries with a spillover effect to the rest of the EU.
Refugees, asylum seekers and migrants are at higher risk of
poverty and social exclusion compared to the local popula-
tions, while the different vulnerable groups face diverse
barriers when accessing health services. In many cases they
do not receive appropriate health and social care that best
meets their needs. Furthermore, in the EU MS, different
practices apply to health and social care delivery for migrants/
refugees. Research has shown the importance of community-
based models to improve health care access of vulnerable
migrants and refugees. Such models include elements of good
communication, cultural awareness, sensitivity and respect for
the diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds by community
health care staff as well health education and primary
healthcare services.
Mig-HealthCare - strengthening Community Based Care to
minimize health inequalities and improve the integration of
vulnerable migrants and refugees into local communities, is a
3-year project, launched in 2017, with the financial support of
the European Commission. It is implemented by a consortium
of 14 partners among them universities, national authorities
99
The importance of ensuring artificial intelligence and
machine learning can be understood at the human
level
Sudha Ram
Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/eurpub/article/29/Supplement_4/ckz185.260/5624240 by Universitaets- und Landesbibliothek Duesseldorf user on 25 October 2023
S Ram1
1
College of Management, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA
Contact: sram@email.arizona.edu
With rapid developments in big data technology and the
prevalence of large-scale datasets from diverse sources, the
healthcare predictive analytics (HPA) field is witnessing a
dramatic surge in interest. In healthcare, it is not only
important to provide accurate predictions, but also critical to
provide reliable explanations to the underlying black-box
models making the predictions. Such explanations can play a
crucial role in not only supporting clinical decision-making
but also facilitating user engagement and patient safety. If users
and decision makers do not have faith in the HPA model, it is
highly likely that they will reject its use. Furthermore, it is
extremely risky to blindly accept and apply the results derived
from black-box models, which might lead to undesirable
consequences or life-threatening outcomes in domains with
high stakes such as healthcare. As machine learning and
artificial intelligence systems are becoming more capable and
ubiquitous, explainable artificial intelligence and machine
learning interpretability are garnering significant attention
among practitioners and researchers. The introduction of
policies such as the General Data Protection Regulation
(GDPR), has amplified the need for ensuring human
interpretability of prediction models. In this talk I will discuss
methods and applications for developing local as well as global
explanations from machine learning and the value they can
provide for healthcare prediction.
and NGOs from ten countries across Europe (Greece, France,
Malta, Germany, Austria, Italy, Cyprus, Spain, Sweden and
Bulgaria). The overall objective of Mig-HealthCare is to
improve health care access for vulnerable migrants and
refugees, support their inclusion and participation in
European communities and reduce health inequalities. The
project’s specific objectives are:
 Describe the current physical and mental health profile of
vulnerable migrants and refugees including needs, expecta-
tions and capacities of service providers.
 Develop a roadmap and toolbox for the implementation of
community based care models, following an assessment of
existing health services and best practices.
 Train community service providers on appropriate delivery
of health care models for vulnerable migrants and refugees.
 Pilot test and evaluate community based care models which
emphasize prevention, physical and mental health promo-
tion and integration.
The project results are presented on behalf of the Mig-
HealthCare consortium.
Key messages:
 The overall objective of Mig-HealthCare is to improve
health care access for vulnerable migrants and refugees.
 The Mig-HealthCare project focuses on developing a
roadmap to facilitate the effective implementation of
community care models.