www.obesityelab.org.uk

Obesity

e-Lab

Obesity e-Lab2009-01-29

Shoaib Sufi

www.obesityelab.org.uk

Obesity

e-Lab

Shoaib Sufi

2009-01-29

• Obesity is associated with many illnesses and is directly related to increased mortality and lower life expectancy

• It is commonly defined as a body mass index (BMI) of 30 kg/m2 or higher

• In the UK tackling Obesity is a government wide priority

'The anticipated growth in obesity in almost all segments of the population is quite alarming, and the analyses of the Health Survey for England give a strong impression of continued inexorable growth'

Foresight, Tackling Obesities: Future Choices - Modelling Future Trends in Obesity & Their Impacct on Health (2nd edition) Government Office for Science

• Not just about Growing rates: Epidemiologists, Social researchers and Public health officials want to understand (and try to control) the reasons beyond eating too much and not excercising or distal factors which cause an increase in Obesity rates. A diagram created from a review of outcomes of Foresight Tackling Obesities project shows the identified 108 factors which drive obesity.

The Obesity Problem

www.obesityelab.org.uk

Obesity

e-Lab

Shoaib Sufi

2009-01-29

www.obesityelab.org.uk

Obesity

e-Lab

Shoaib Sufi

2009-01-29

How Researchers work

Data

PublicationsData is Key – this is where it starts

AnalysisModels

Results

www.obesityelab.org.uk

Obesity

e-Lab

Shoaib Sufi

2009-01-29

SurveysSurveysPublic HealthPublic HealthClinicalClinical

NHS & Partners’ Data TombsNHS & Partners’ Data Tombs

ResearchResearch

DepositDeposit UseUse

Digital Dust (data deposit > use)

www.obesityelab.org.uk

Obesity

e-Lab

Shoaib Sufi

2009-01-29

It starts with Data: Health Surveys

• Surveys under used and difficult to manage• Health Survey for England – HSE

• British Household Panel Survey - BHPS

• Within the same survey• Hard to Navigate

• Cryptic label

• Metadata separate from data (cross-referencing)

• Differences• Labeling of the same concept year to year

• Differing in measurement technique of the same concept from year to year

• value domains of same concept different year to year

www.obesityelab.org.uk

Obesity

e-Lab

Shoaib Sufi

2009-01-29

Data Issues continued

• Across Surveys many issues• Matching concepts across surveys

• Matching value domains

• Combinatorial effect of mapping the whole space

• concepts*survey years*number of surveys* - not feasible for just one researcher or group!

• Once portion of interest done not easy to reuse by the person themselves (e.g. 6 months later) or to share.

• What's needed Just Enough (mapping), Just In Time (when you need it) and Just Shareable (to co-workers or the community) –i.e. Data Methodologies

www.obesityelab.org.uk

Obesity

e-Lab

Shoaib Sufi

2009-01-29

Understanding Surveys

www.obesityelab.org.uk

Obesity

e-Lab

Shoaib Sufi

2009-01-29

Data Methodologies

www.obesityelab.org.uk

Obesity

e-Lab

Shoaib Sufi

2009-01-29

Benefits

• Allows sets of mappings to be shared and added to allowing collaborative building of Data methodologies

• Does not get rid of the problem in surveys but allows a mechanism for capturing the re-conciliation process in a structured manner so it is not ad-hoc or bespoke

• Allow re-discovery by the original author

• Saves time … time better spent doing research and not data manipulation/harmonisation.

www.obesityelab.org.uk

Obesity

e-Lab

Shoaib Sufi

2009-01-29

… After Data ...

• Once you have access to data in a sensible form then …

• You want to analyse data through various common categories and patterns of analysis – Analysis Methodologies

• You want to visualise the data or the analysis – common charts & spatial-temporal mapping – Visualisation Methodologies

• Necessary pre-conditions ; making things explicit that are normally implicit. Frames of reference or earlier research – Reference Methodology.

www.obesityelab.org.uk

Obesity

e-Lab

Shoaib Sufi

2009-01-29

Obesity e-Lab Architecture

Survey xWalks

Data Method

Analysis Method

Visualisation Method

User

Obesity e-Lab Workbench

Survey Providers

AnalysisCatalogue

Charts, Maps, Output areas ...

Data, Surveys, Analysis, GIS,Publications

Composing,Sharing,Collaborating

Research Questions & Answers

Reference Method

RO

PubMed, ...

Val

ue

www.obesityelab.org.uk

Obesity

e-Lab

Shoaib Sufi

2009-01-29

How e-Labs will help future Obesity analysis

• Sharing types of analysis

• Chaining common analysis

• Shared understanding in research group

• Better publication

• Built to be repeatable

• Types of Analysis (Epidemiology nomenclature)

• Descriptions

• Distributions

• Trends

• Associations

• … etc

• Aim is to cover the 20% of the space of Epidemiologics/Social Researchers/Public Health people that gives 80% of the value/usage.

www.obesityelab.org.uk

Obesity

e-Lab

Shoaib Sufi

2009-01-29

Obesity e-Lab workbench (WiP)

ConceptsConceptMapping

AnalysisChaining

Visualised ResultsBuilding the RO's

Sharing

www.obesityelab.org.uk

Obesity

e-Lab

Shoaib Sufi

2009-01-29

Obesity e-Lab going forward

• Standing on the shoulders of many Giants simultaneously !

• Obesity e-Lab is an instance of an e-Lab• Built upon same principles

• Notion of RO as common currency

• Linked with like minded project to allow creation of inter-operable pieces

• Users and Social researchers are excited about the prospect of such a tool• Easy re-use and re-purposing of work

• Possible use by data providers to create definitive concept maps

• Save time … get on with research

www.obesityelab.org.uk

Obesity

e-Lab

Shoaib Sufi

2009-01-29

Obesity e-Lab Overview

• Obesity is associated with many illnesses and is directly related to increased mortality and lower life expectancy.

• Due to the nature of health related survey data there is an underuse of large health survey data (e.g. The Health Survey for England).

• If access and understanding of information inside surveys were made easier the use of such survey data could dramatically increaed.

• Obesity e-Lab aims to lower the barrier of entry to data, analysis and visualisation around survey data, allowing deeper analysis and thus better policy decisions with a focus on the Obesity problem.

• Obesity e-Lab is an instance of an e-Lab; built using a common format (Research Objects) and service notions.

• Research Objects allow a replayable, shareable, descriptive and methodological understanding of research outcomes.

www.obesityelab.org.uk

Obesity

e-Lab

Shoaib Sufi

2009-01-29

Questions

• ?