Challenges and Facilitators to the Secondary Use of Routinely Collected Oral Health Data from Multiple European Countries

This research aimed to identify and explore perceived challenges and facilitators to acquiring routinely collected oral healthcare data for research in six European countries with the aim of generating practical solutions for future initiatives. Seventeen participants from the UK, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Ireland and the Netherlands participated who were either data requestors or data providers for the ADVOCATE project. Focus groups using the nominal group technique were undertaken using PESTLE as a theoretical framework to guide the discussion. The data were analysed using content analysis. Four main challenges were identified: 1) legality rules influencing the data available, 2) variations in data standardisation/coding between countries, 3) relationships and responsibilities between stakeholders, and 4) data not available for secondary use. The facilitators included: 1) having a framework in place to guide the process, 2) having strong relationships between stakeholders, 3) having technical elements in place to support the process, and 4) taking a pragmatic approach to the available data. It is hoped that identifying these challenges will raise awareness of potential issues for undertaking such research and that tackling these and building on the facilitators will establish stronger foundations for the sharing of data within and across disciplines and countries.