Cross-border flow of health information: is 'privacy by design' enough? Privacy performance assessment in EUBIROD.

Background: The EUBIROD project aims to perform a cross-border flow of diabetes information across 19 European countries using the BIRO information system, which embeds privacy principles and data protection mechanisms in its architecture (privacy by design). A specific task of EUBIROD was to investigate the variability in the implementation of the EU Data Protection Directive (DPD) across participating centres.

Methods: Compliance with privacy requirements was assessed by means of a specific questionnaire administered to all participating diabetes registers.

Resource utilisation and clinical data before and after switching between short-acting human insulin and rapid-acting insulin analogues in patients with type 2 diabetes: the SWING study.

Aim: SWING was a prospective, observational study conducted in nine European countries primarily to assess direct treatment costs when switching from short-acting human insulins to rapid-acting insulin analogues (H-A) or vice versa (A-H) in patients with type 2 diabetes.

Methods: Data were collected at a baseline visit (time of switch) and at approximately 3, 6 and 12 months post-switch.

Results: In total, 2389 patients switched from H-A (n=2203) or A-H (n=186); another 603 were enrolled but ineligible.