Vol. 7 No. 3 (2022): Conference Proceedings for International Population Data Linkage Conference 2022
When we took over the Directorship of IPDLN in January 2021, the world was very much still in the grip of the Covid-19 pandemic. In the UK, our third national lockdown had just started, with hotel quarantine for travellers from 33 high-risk countries coming into place in February. Contemplating how to plan a major international conference in 2022 seemed like a very daunting task, when it was far from clear if people would want to – or be able to – travel. Following the excellent IPDLN 2020 online conference organised by the team in Adelaide, Australia, we also knew the 2022 conference would need to be a hybrid conference. This would enable it to have all the networking benefits of an in-person conference along with the benefits of an online conference.
With the theme of the conference decided upon, ‘Data linkage research: informing policy and practice’, we began to promote in earnest. It was a huge relief to both the Scientific Committee (chaired by Emma) and Conference Organising Committee (chaired by Chris) when abstracts and registrations came flooding in. In total, 346 abstracts were submitted and reviewed, resulting in 281 oral presentations and 29 poster presentations.
Abstracts were across a range of topics including: data linkage, methods, systems and technology; research using real world data; multi-sectoral data linkage; linking data to produce official statistics; ethics, law and social implications; and public engagement and involvement in population data research. Thirty of the presentations were from either PhD or Masters students. Bursaries were awarded to 17 of these students from a range of countries, to help with the costs associated with attending a conference such as this.
We are delighted that the abstracts presented at IPDLN 2022 are being published in this issue of the IJPDS, to ensure that the views, ideas and research outcomes are available to a wider audience. We hope that the work covered by the abstracts is of interest to you. If it is, please do contact the abstract authors to find out more. This will promote collaboration and help to ensure that IPDLN activities related to population data linkage have an even greater impact. You may also like to consider joining the network if you are not a member already. Membership |www.ipdln.org
Dr Emma Gordon & Professor Chris Dibben
IPDLN Co-Directors 2021 - 2022