PROJECT TITLE

H2020 REBECCA: Research on Breast Cancer induced chronic conditions supported by Causal Analysis of multi-source data

ABOUT THIS PROJECT

The REBECCA proposal aspires to tap into the potential of Real-world Data (RWD) for supporting ground-breaking clinical research on complex chronic conditions (CCC) as a complement to Randomized Controlled Trials (RCT). REBECCA moves beyond the analysis of Electronic health records (EHR), by combining it with detailed monitoring data from multiple wearables, online behavior and registry data to monitor patients’ functional, emotional and Quality of Life trajectories, with high temporal granularity. REBECCA also proposes explainable causal modelling combined with deep learning to account for observed and latent confounders in RWD analysis.
The project will focus on the complex array of chronic comorbidities developed during breast cancer recovery, in particular studying the impact of primary and adjuvant cancer treatment on patients’ quality of life and assessing the value of detailed patient monitoring as a means for improved patient care, but will also demonstrate the extensibility of REBECCA to other forms of cancer. To this end, a total of seven studies in Sweden, Norway and Spain will produce new knowledge on clinical management of cancer patients that will shape future guidelines and practices for post-cancer treatments.
Best practices resulting from the REBECCA studies will be disseminated to researchers, public health and regulatory bodies throughout Europe to facilitate wider adoption of RWD in clinical research. In addition, the REBECCA platform, capable of detailed monitoring and privacy-preserving federated cross-country data analysis, will provide an infrastructure for continued progress on use of RWD beyond the end of the project. Through these activities, REBECCA aims at the mass adoption of RWD for understanding CCCs and ultimately at establishing RWD as a valuable clinical research and patient management tool.

8BELLS ROLE

8Bells is leading tasks T2.2 – Interfaces to data sources and common data representation format and T8.3 – Cost-benefit analysis.

Moreover, 8Bells will participate in collecting information from relevant stakeholders so as to identify their needs and define relevant uses of the REBECCA system in their context; the above will be used to define user requirements and use-cases for the REBECCA system.

Furthermore, 8Bells will participate in the design of the detailed software system specifications of REBECCA, as well as in setting up a process for continuous integration and testing (CI/CD).