Standards for the Reuse of Clinical Data in Research: the Connection of the Liguria HIV Network and the CISAI Cohort

An example of clinical data re-use achieved in an Italian region for HIV patient treatment is given. A network including all public hospitals in this region has been setup, using several standards at different levels. Specifically, the indications of Healthcare Service Specification Project (HSSP) jointly developed by HL7 and OMG have been extensively used. The automated system which has been setup has brought about a significant increase in the number of lab-tests that have been collected for clinical data re-use purposes. It is intended to extend the software environment to other regions and ultimately at national level.