The EU-ADR project aims to develop an innovative computerised system to detect adverse drug reactions (ADRs) through the exploitation of clinical data from electronic healthcare records (EHRs). This process will rely on the usage and development of various computational techniques to analyse the EHRs in order to detect “signals” (combination of drugs and suspected adverse events that warrant further investigation). These techniques will be made available as a set of secure Web services, combining secure HTTPS connection with WS-Security user authentication.
However, to obtain final readable results, the various services must work with each other, constructing one or more workflows. An interdisciplinary team of researchers, requiring a software application that enhances workflow development in an elegant manner, will develop these workflows. The chosen platform is Taverna, which provides a very easy to use interface and strong core features for Web services interconnection and management, improving researchers’ collaboration and general system functionality. Taverna will support the remaining system components and end-user applications. In the end, the project should demonstrate that scientific and clinical evidence could quickly and directly be translated into patient safety and, thus, health benefit.
Presentation slides by Pedro Lopes describe the use of Taverna by the EU-ADR project.
