Special Meeting of the P-D-R to Explore FAIR-ification of External Data

The benefit will be to develop more targeted drugs more quickly to bring more benefits to patients.

Findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable. Those are the guiding principles for researchers and publishers that together add up to a FAIR way to manage scientific data.

On May 21st and 22nd at the Heathrow Marriott, just outside central London, the Pharma Documentation Ring – a community of innovative knowledge managers from 28 leading pharmaceutical firms – will host a special workshop on the FAIR-ification of external data.

According to Helen Malone, president of the PDR and director of the Global Information Hub at GlaxoSmithKline, adherence to the FAIR principles is critical for all stakeholders in the healthcare industry and can lead to breaking down data silos. The PDR workshop aims to accelerate that process.

“At GSK, for example, we’ve started on the FAIR journey, and we’re looking first at what we can do to improve our internal data.  And what we hope is that FAIR is going to help us break down those silos between different departments and get us that better usage across data and across the R&D pipeline,” she tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally.

“The pharma industry has recognized the potential of applying analytical tools to the vast amount of data that we have access to in order to develop more personalized and targeted medicines,” Malone notes. “That’s really ultimately the benefit that we’re trying to get to – to develop more targeted drugs more quickly to bring more benefits to patients.”