{"id":1375,"date":"2013-09-20T09:27:39","date_gmt":"2013-09-20T13:27:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.acceleratingscience.com\/?p=1375"},"modified":"2013-09-20T09:27:39","modified_gmt":"2013-09-20T13:27:39","slug":"how-informatics-help-hunt-biobank-manage-25-years-of-population-health-data-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thermofisher.com\/blog\/biobanking\/how-informatics-help-hunt-biobank-manage-25-years-of-population-health-data-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"How Informatics Help HUNT Biobank Manage 25+ Years of Population Health Data (Part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"


The Nord-Trøndelag Health Study (called “HUNT” for short) began in 1984 as a way to identify the prevalence of hypertension, diabetes and lung disorders in a segment of the population near the Norwegian University of Science and Technology<\/a> in Nord-Trøndelag County, Norway.<\/p>\n

Since then, HUNT has evolved into one of the largest longitudinal population health studies ever performed. Now representing a unique, integrated family and personal database of about 120,000 people from Nord-Trøndelag County, HUNT offers valuable insights into the progression of a wide range of diseases, particularly in relation to quality of life measures such as environment, education and occupation.<\/p>\n

As you can imagine, the fundamental logistics for a biobank of this magnitude are daunting. HUNT researchers needed to master the collection, transportation, preservation, analysis and storage of samples on a massive scale –and they’ve been doing so successfully for more than 25 years.<\/p>\n

Plus, there was another significant factor to contend with: all the data. The researchers needed to collect, analyze and store enormous amounts of data related to the samples: tracking information such as the number of times a sample has been checked in or out, compliance information such as maintenance records for laboratory equipment and, of course, pure test results.<\/p>\n

To ensure long-term viability, samples are stored in the vapor phase of liquid nitrogen.<\/p><\/div>When HUNT began, the biobank database consisted of a conglomeration of different traditional file types, such as Excel spreadsheets, csv (comma separated value), texts, etc., all requiring long hours of manual capture, calculation and veri\ufb01cation –and all potentially jeopardizing data integrity, searchability and accessibility.<\/p>\n

But in 2005 HUNT Biobank adopted a laboratory information management system (LIMS)<\/a> to collate, store and administer the vast amount of data from the study. In Part One of this blog post, we’ll highlight a few of the most important:<\/p>\n