The vocation of France Cohortes
In a growing context of massive and heterogeneous data, systematic collection and data openness, health cohorts face many challenges.
The challenges are associated with the protection of privacy, data-sharing, the integration and maintenance of technical follow-up tools and effective information systems and, more generally, their sustainability, the value of a cohort tending to emerge in the mid to long term.
France Cohorts aims to consolidate the production and processing of cohort data funded under the Investments for the Programme d'Investissement d'Avenir (PIA).
One initial group of 13 cohorts, in connection with their supervision, is behind the development of France Cohortes.
These cohorts - Infrastructure, Equipex, Cohorts - funded by the PIA Investments include more than 600,000 participants in total. They are either generalists in the general population of adults and/or children, or specialized in particular pathologies.
A center for IT resources and services for researchers
To help meet the challenges faced by cohorts, France Cohortes develops and pools a resource and service center with researchers, to:
- enhance and perpetuate their projects and the scientific exploitation of the data produced,
- promote and share their scientific expertise,
- strengthen the level of protection and confidentiality of participant data in compliance with the ethical and regulatory framework,
- and refocus their activity on the scientific aspects, by supporting the procedures for authorization and use of data within deadlines compatible with the research responsiveness constraints.
