INSPIRE is a groundbreaking network to enhance population health research across Africa. Connecting 20+ HDSS sites, it fosters data sharing, harmonization, capacity building, and data management platform for impactful, data-driven insights.
INSPIRE revolutionizes global health research by harmonizing health and demographic data, empowering informed decision-making. Through advanced data science, capacity building, and secure data sharing, INSPIRE strengthens surveillance systems and fosters collaborative, impactful research across Africa.
INSPIRE addresses key global health challenges by enabling the harmonization of health and demographic data across countries and settings. Through cutting-edge data science tools and collaborative frameworks, the network empowers researchers, healthcare professionals, and policymakers to make informed decisions based on reliable, ethically shared data.
Key focus areas include:
- Strengthening Health and Demographic Surveillance Systems (HDSS): Enhancing data collection, integration, and sharing, including innovative data linkage techniques.
- Data Science Infrastructure: Leveraging common data models (CDMs), such as the Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership (OMOP), for integrating Electronic Health Records (EHR) into research-ready databases.
- Capacity Building: Empowering researchers in data science, analytics, and ethical data sharing.
- Platforms for Data Sharing: Developing a robust data hub to support secure, interoperable data sharing.
- Data Use and Analytics: Promoting evidence generation and collaborative research to address regional and global health challenge.
Tathagata
Bhattacharjee
ALPHA Network Data Analyst
Keith Tomlin
Emma
Slaymaker
Associate Professor
David
Amadi
Data Documentalist
INSPIRE PEACH
The INSPIRE PEACH project was a proof-of-concept initiative aimed at creating a Pan-African COVID-19 data ecosystem to tackle the health threats posed by the pandemic in Sub-Saharan Africa. This initiative successfully leveraged Artificial Intelligence (AI), Data Science (DS), and the Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership (OMOP) Common Data Model (CDM) to harmonize COVID-19 data from countries such as Kenya and Malawi.
A major highlight of INSPIRE PEACH was the development of a scalable platform on Microsoft Azure, integrating all key Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics (OHDSI) tools. The platform facilitated Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL) processes to harmonize diverse datasets into the OMOP CDM, enabling standardized analysis and interoperability. This setup empowered collaborative research across multiple sites and supported informed decision-making during the pandemic. Learn more at the INSPIRE PEACH page.
AI for record linkage in HDSS sites
The INSPIRE Network is leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to develop innovative tools for record linkage across Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS) sites. This initiative aims to integrate diverse datasets generated from HDSS surveys and health service records within communities, enabling more comprehensive insights into population health.
As part of this effort, INSPIRE conducted a hackathon to explore AI and ML applications for designing an effective record linkage tool. The resulting tool enhances the interoperability of HDSS data, strengthening its utility for research and policy by linking individual health records with population health data.
Population Health Data implementation guide
In partnership with the WorldFAIR initiative, INSPIRE developed a guide for implementing FAIR principles in population health research. Access the guide here.
Mental Health Data Integration
Utilizing the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) Lifecycle framework, the INSPIRE Network's staging database effectively manages longitudinal mental health data, specifically focusing on conditions such as depression, anxiety, and psychosis. This innovative database captures metadata at its source, ensuring accurate tracking and updates throughout the data lifecycle. By employing a snowflake schema, it facilitates seamless integration into the Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership (OMOP) Common Data Model (CDM), enhancing data quality and interoperability. Additionally, the staging database features a dynamic dashboard that provides real-time insights into data usage.
Data Science Without Borders (DSWB)
The DSWB Pathfinder Project, in partnership with APHRC, fosters collaboration and builds analytical capacity across Africa, promoting data-driven insights into public health challenges. The DSWB demonstrates how to build Open Science applications to preserve the integrity and ownership of health data in an ethical way, while ensuring the use of the data to answer important public health policy questions. Learn more at DSWB Pathfinder Tour.
Building data science capacity
A key area of focus has been developing the OMOP data pipeline, leveraging OHDSI’s suite of advanced data science tools to enable efficient data integration, harmonization, and analysis.
The training programs also emphasize the use of no-code and low-code platforms, making it easier for researchers with varying levels of technical expertise to contribute to complex data analytics.
Additionally, INSPIRE has been instrumental in advancing the implementation of FAIR principles, integrating domain-specific standards that enhance data interoperability and reusability. The initiative also involves configuring and managing data catalogs to improve metadata findability and accessibility.
Record linkage innovation
The network has successfully developed and deployed AI-driven tools to harmonize clinical and demographic data across 25 HDSS sites, facilitating richer insights into population health.
Technical partnerships
INSPIRE collaborates with renowned organizations such as LSHTM, CODATA, and MUBAS.
Enhancing INSPIRE vocabularies
INSPIRE is addressing gaps in OHDSI vocabularies, which predominantly focus on medical terms but lack comprehensive coverage of population health concepts. The project has initiated efforts to compile and suggest region-specific health concepts, including those relevant to HDSSs, for integration into OMOP vocabularies.
INSPIRE PEACH training courses: