Data Diffusion

EurosForDocs: Strengthening Healthcare Transparency Through Data Quality

Sat, 10 Jan 2026 11:00:53 +0200

Presentation given as part of the Bordeaux ApérOps meetup on February 11, 2026.

The stakes of transparency in healthcare
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The Mediator scandal
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Mediator is a drug derived from amphetamine, marketed by the Servier laboratory as an antidiabetic from 1976. Beyond its official framework of use, it was however massively prescribed as an appetite suppressant for more than thirty years. During all these years, it is said to have caused the death of more than 1,500 people and created serious illnesses in thousands of others.

Using hash functions to simplify the creation of historical records

Tue, 16 Dec 2025 08:24:53 +0200

As a data engineer, we are not always masters of our data sources. Particularly when using open data, we are at the mercy of the changes made by data producers.

Data deduplication: using entity resolution on the Transparence Santé database

Tue, 14 Oct 2025 10:00:00 +0200

The challenge of identifying beneficiaries
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The healthcare ecosystem brings together several types of actors: pharmaceutical laboratories, healthcare professionals and patient associations. These actors maintain financial and influence relationships with each other that can create conflicts of interest.

Applying fuzzy matching for disambiguation of healthcare professionals

Mon, 18 Aug 2025 08:00:00 +0200

Data quality is a central issue in exploiting public databases. As part of the EurosForDocs project, which aims to bring transparency to financial ties between pharmaceutical companies and healthcare professionals, this issue is particularly critical. The reliability of analyses depends on our ability to unambiguously identify each healthcare professional receiving remuneration or benefits.

EurosForDocs: Strengthening Transparency in Healthcare

Tue, 27 May 2025 20:19:11 +0100

A scandal that changed everything
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In 2010, pulmonologist Irène Frachon publishes the book Mediator 150 mg: How many deaths? and triggers the Mediator scandal in France. From 1976 to 2009, this amphetamine-like drug was prescribed as an appetite suppressant even though its authorization was limited only to the treatment of type 2 diabetes. The consequences were catastrophic: approximately 2,000 deaths and many patients suffering from serious side effects, particularly cardiovascular lesions.