Mining healthcare data to uncover new insights into medicines
Could the data generated every time a medicine is prescribed help us discover new information about how drugs affect our health?
Our research, in conjunction with the Monash Centre for Medicine Use and Safety (Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences Research) is exploring how data science can help identify important signals about drug safety and potential new uses for existing medicines.
Published in Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics, the study analysed Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) prescription data from 2014–2024, examining patterns of medicine use in people with coronary artery disease, type 2 diabetes and epilepsy.
The approach successfully identified several known adverse drug effects and potentially protective effects, while also uncovering other associations that could point to previously unrecognised drug safety concerns or opportunities for drug repurposing.
While these potential signals require further validation, the research demonstrates how data science can help researchers make better use of large-scale healthcare data to generate new insights into medicines and their effects.
Read the full paper:https://ascpt.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cpt.70080