Patient registries and databases are key instruments to support clinical research in the field of rare diseases, to improve patient care and aide healthcare planning. The effort needed to gather registry data is enormous and yet worthwhile since they are the basis for the observation of the natural course of a disease, for planning and for doing feasibility checks of clinical trials. A widely unknown number of RD registries existed, still exist or are in the process of being set up. So far, data exchange is a problem, not foreseen in most registries and cross-border interoperability is not provided. The small number of patients affected by rare diseases make registries even more important than in the normal population or in common diseases as they enable cross-border gathering of data to achieve sufficient sample size for any purpose in clinical research and or public health issues.
Patient and care team members of ERN-LUNG have deducted that the excellent pre-existing registries within ERN-LUNG could give a strong basis for a NEW Registry Warehouse enabling full data exchange and cross-border interoperability. This Rare Disease (RD) REGISTRY DATA WAREHOUSE will be a combination of existing registries, new registries or new registry elements that are brought together with full interoperability. To develop this RD REGISTRY DATA WAREHOUSE we build upon our experience with registries established and coordinated by the applicants (starting with CF, PCD and non-CF BE), existing software solutions (Open Source registry framework OSSE) developed and/or used for RD registries by the applicants and leadership in defining minimum data sets and compliance to data quality standards such as EUCERD Recommendations on RD registries, a project led by the coordinator.
This RD REGISTRY DATA WAREHOUSE will not only improve data management and research in rare lung diseases, but will serve as a blueprint to connect patient registries and databases linked to other rare diseases.

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