Welcome to the inaugural edition of the International Journal of Population Data Science (IJPDS). This edition has been entirely dedicated to publication of the proceedings of the International Population Data Linkage Network (IPDLN) 2016 conference.

While the potential for this new journal is varied and exciting, this focussed edition provides access to the wonderful contributions from over 300 different presenters at the conference, attended by almost 600 delegates over the three days of the event.  On this occasion, this biennial conference was held in Swansea (Wales, UK) in the magnificent new facilities provided by Swansea University’s new beachside Bay Campus.  Attended by delegates from over 35 countries and with presentations covering the whole gamut of specialisms and interest areas relevant to this new and evolving branch of science, the 2016 conference marked a significant step forward in the development of the IPDLN, and provided a unique opportunity to showcase the initiatives, advances and achievements of data linkage centres across the world.

The IPDLN has always had sharing best practice and building fruitful collaborations at its heart, and we believe the 2016 conference did a magnificent job in both respects.  Through the publication of these proceedings, we hope that the papers given at the event will be immortalised in a way that allows them to be revisited and referred to well into the future, by being made available to a far wider audience than were able to attend the event. We hope you find the content of this issue interesting and relevant, and that it will encourage you to submit your work to the IJPDS, to become more deeply involved in this important new science, to join the IPDLN and hopefully to attend the next IPDLN conference, which will be held in Banff, Canada in 2018.

I also hope you will be a regular reader of this new journal, which under a strong editorial team, is soon to be the go-to journal for all things of importance in population data science.

With my very best wishes,

Professor David V Ford
IPDLN Director 2015 - 17
IJPDS Executive Director

Linkage of health insurance data to the Netherlands Twin Register

IJPDS (2017) Issue 1, Vol 1:028, Proceedings of the IPDLN Conference (August 2016)

Gerard van Grootheest, Adelaide Ariel, Tina Glasner, Bep Verkerk, Toos van Beijsterveldt, Jan van der Laan, Mark de Groot, Sipke Visser, Bart Bakker, Dorret Boomsma
Published online: Apr 13, 2017

The seasonality and effects of temperature and rainfall on Campylobacter infections

IJPDS (2017) Issue 1, Vol 1:034, Proceedings of the IPDLN Conference (August 2016)

Abdelmajid Djennad, Gordon Nichols, Gianni Loiacono, Lora Fleming, Anthony Kessel, Sari Kovats, Iain Lake, Christophe Sarran, Richard Elson, Christopher Lane, Christophe Hoeser, Trevor Bailey
Published online: Apr 13, 2017

Methods of defining hypertension in electronic medical records: validation against national survey data

IJPDS (2017) Issue 1, Vol 1:039, Proceedings of the IPDLN Conference (August 2016)

Mingkai Peng, Guanmin Chen, Gilaad Kaplan, Lisa Lix, Neil Drummond, Kelsey Lucyk, Stephanie Garies, Mark Lowerison, Samuel Weibe, Hude Quan
Published online: Apr 13, 2017

Child Injury: Does home matter?

IJPDS (2017) Issue 1, Vol 1:046, Proceedings of the IPDLN Conference (August 2016)

Cate Cameron, Jodie Osborne, Tamzyn Davey, Anneliese Spinks, Neil Sipe, Rod McClure
Published online: Apr 13, 2017

Emergency department attendance after telephone triage

IJPDS (2017) Issue 1, Vol 1:062, Proceedings of the IPDLN Conference (August 2016)

Amy Gibson, Deborah Randall, Duong Tran, Mary Byrne, Anthony Lawler, Alys Havard, Maureen Robinson, Louisa Jorm
Published online: Apr 13, 2017

How sick is Austria? – A decision support framework for different evaluations of the burden of disease within the Austrian population based on different data sources

IJPDS (2017) Issue 1, Vol 1:092, Proceedings of the IPDLN Conference (August 2016)

Barbara Glock, Florian Endel, Gottfried Endel, Klaudia Sandholzer, Niki Popper, Christoph Rinner, Georg Duftschmid, Peter Filzmoser, Mehmet Can Mert, Jürgen Holl, Michael Wagner-Pinter
Published online: Apr 18, 2017

The Housing Regeneration and Health Study

IJPDS (2017) Issue 1, Vol 1:108, Proceedings of the IPDLN Conference (August 2016)

Sarah Rodgers, Rhodri Johnson, Rowena Bailey, Frank Dunstan, Wouter Poortinga, Damon Berridge, Robert Smith, Ronan Lyons
Published online: Apr 18, 2017

Quantifying the fatal and non-fatal burden of Stroke and its modifiable determinants using routine Scottish healthcare datasets

IJPDS (2017) Issue 1, Vol 1:109, Proceedings of the IPDLN Conference (August 2016)

Grant Wyper, Ian Grant, Elaine Tod, Margaret McFadden, Oscar Mesalles-Naranjo, Neil Craig, Richard Dobbie, Colin Fischbacher, Gerard McCartney, Diane Stockton
Published online: Apr 18, 2017

CanIMPACT: Understanding complexities, variation, and disparities in the breast cancer care continuum in Five Canadian provinces using administrative data

IJPDS (2017) Issue 1, Vol 1:114, Proceedings of the IPDLN Conference (August 2016)

Patti Groome, Marcy Winget, Li Jiang, Kathleen Decker, Cynthia Kendell, Monika Krzyzanowska, Dongdong Li, Aisha Lofters, Mary L McBride, Nicole Mittmann, Rahim Moineddin, Geoff Porter, Donna Turner, Robin Urquhart, Eva Grunfeld
Published online: Apr 18, 2017

Differences in the breast cancer diagnostic process across stage groups in Ontario, Canada

IJPDS (2017) Issue 1, Vol 1:115, Proceedings of the IPDLN Conference (August 2016)

Patti Groome, Marlo Whitehead, Li Jiang, Julie Gilbert, Eva Grunfeld, Hugh Langley, Aisha Lofters, Rahim Moineddin, Geoff Porter
Published online: Apr 18, 2017

No Strings Attached: Evaluating an Unconditional Prenatal Income Supplement Using Linked Administrative Data

IJPDS (2017) Issue 1, Vol 1:124, Proceedings of the IPDLN Conference (August 2016)

Marni Brownell, Mariette Chartier, Nathan Nickel, Dan Chateau, Joykrishna Sarkar, Elaine Burland, Doug Jutte, Carole Taylor, Rob Santos, Alan Katz
Published online: Apr 18, 2017

Linking the Australian Childhood Immunisation Register to population-based perinatal datasets to assess coverage in at-risk groups

IJPDS (2017) Issue 1, Vol 1:131, Proceedings of the IPDLN Conference (August 2016)

Hannah Moore, Lisa McCallum, Parveen Fathima, Nicholas de Klerk, Bette Liu, Tom Snelling, Christopher Blyth, Peter McIntyre, Heather Gidding
Published online: Apr 18, 2017

Using consented health record linkage in a longitudinal cohort study

IJPDS (2017) Issue 1, Vol 1:149, Proceedings of the IPDLN Conference (August 2016)

Karen Tingay, Ashley Akbari, Amrita Bandyopadhyay, Helen Bedford, Sinead Brophy, Mario Cortina Borja, Emla Fitzsimons, Lucy Griffiths, Melanie Healy, Jon Johnson, Efrosini Setakis, Suzanne Walton, Carol Dezateux, Ronan Lyons
Published online: Apr 18, 2017

Identifying superusers of health services with mental health and addiction problems: Putting the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Strategy for Patient Oriented Research into action

IJPDS (2017) Issue 1, Vol 1:158, Proceedings of the IPDLN Conference (August 2016)

Jacqueline Quail, Joelle Schaefer, Cory Neudorf, Maureen Anderson, Valerie McLeod, Tania Lafontaine, Judy Pelly, Marilyn Baetz, Margaret Baker, Gary Teare, Nazeem Muhajarine
Published online: Apr 18, 2017

Record linkage augments cancer ascertainment in HIV cohorts in South Africa

IJPDS (2017) Issue 1, Vol 1:163, Proceedings of the IPDLN Conference (August 2016)

Mazvita Sengayi, Adrian Spörri, Eliane Rohner, Michael Vinikoor, Hans Prozesky, Andrew Boulle, Matthias Egger, Julia Bohlius
Published online: Apr 18, 2017

Identifying superusers of health services with mental health and addiction problems

IJPDS (2017) Issue 1, Vol 1:167, Proceedings of the IPDLN Conference (August 2016)

Jacqueline Quail, Maureen Anderson, Meric Osman, Claire de Oliveira, Walter Wodchis, Nazeem Muhajarine, Kathie Pruden Nansel, Valerie McLeod, Marilyn Baetz, Gary Teare, Tania Lafontaine, Judy Pelly, Joelle Schaefer, Margaret Baker, Cory Neudorf
Published online: Apr 18, 2017

Are There Long-term Academic Benefits of Full-Day Kindergarten? A Population-Based Analysis

IJPDS (2017) Issue 1, Vol 1:179, Proceedings of the IPDLN Conference (August 2016)

Marni Brownell, Nathan Nickel, Dan Chateau, Carole Taylor, Leah Crockett, Alan Katz, Joykrishna Sarkar, Elaine Burland
Published online: Apr 18, 2017

Population-based estimates of the effectiveness of pneumococcal vaccination in Australia

IJPDS (2017) Issue 1, Vol 1:201 Proceedings of the IPDLN Conference (August 2016)

Heather Gidding, Hannah Moore, Lisa McCallum, Parveen Fathima, Thomas Snelling, Nicholas de Klerk, Peter McIntyre
Published online: Apr 18, 2017

Unified health database creation: 125 million brazilian cohort from information systems of hospital, outpatient, births, notifications and mortalities

IJPDS (2017) Issue 1, Vol 1:205 Proceedings of the IPDLN Conference (August 2016)

Ramon Pereira, Leonardo Dias, Juliano Ávila, Núbia Santos, Eli Iola Gurgel, Mariangela Leal Cherchiglia, Francisco AcÚrcio, Afonso Reis, Wagner Meira, Junior, Augusto Afonso Guerra, Junior
Published online: Apr 18, 2017

CHERISH: Understanding Suicide Clusters tHrough ExploRIng Self Harm behaviours

IJPDS (2017) Issue 1, Vol 1:227 Proceedings of the IPDLN Conference (August 2016)

Marcos Delpozo-Banos, Keith Hawton, David Gunnel, Keith Lloyd, Jonathan Scourfield, Michael Dennis, Ann John
Published online: Apr 18, 2017

Adherence and persistence of subcutaneous biologics delivered through homecare services to a cohort of patients with rheumatoid arthritis

IJPDS (2017) Issue 1, Vol 1:228 Proceedings of the IPDLN Conference (August 2016)

Samantha Alvarez-Madrazo, Kim Kavanagh, Yvonne Semple, Norman Lannigan, Kevin Milne, Brian Godman, Alessandra Maciel Almeida, Francisco Assis Acurcio, Stefan Siebert, Marion Bennie
Published online: Apr 18, 2017

Linkage of health care claims data and apps data: The ADVOCATE oral health care dashboard

IJPDS (2017) Issue 1, Vol 1:231 Proceedings of the IPDLN Conference (August 2016)

Frank Gabel, Karen O’hanlon, Pamela Brankin, Robert Bryce, Anna-Lena Trescher, Christian Haux, Helen Whelton, Geert van der Heijden, Stefan Listl
Published online: Apr 18, 2017

IMECCHI-DATANETWORK: empowering knowledge generation through international data network

IJPDS (2017) Issue 1, Vol 1:237 Proceedings of the IPDLN Conference (August 2016)

Marie Annick Le Pogam, Amy Metcalf, Søren Paaske Johnsen, Phil Hider, Alka Patel, Hongsoo Kim, Emanuele Carlini, Raffaele Perego, Hude Quan, Rosa Gini
Published online: Apr 18, 2017

Qualitative content analysis for international comparison of data usage agreements

IJPDS (2017) Issue 1, Vol 1:244 Proceedings of the IPDLN Conference (August 2016)

Christian Haux, Frank Gabel, Anna-Lena Trescher, Helen Whelton, Geert van der Heijden, Stefan Listl, Petra Knaup-Gregori
Published online: Apr 18, 2017

Linking Hospital and Tax data to support research on the economic impacts of hospitalization

IJPDS (2017) Issue 1, Vol 1:246 Proceedings of the IPDLN Conference (August 2016)

Claudia Sanmartin, Alexander Reicker, Allan Garland, Theodore Iwashyna, Randy Fransoo, Damon Scales, Hannah Wunsch, Evelyn Forget, Hanqing Qiu
Published online: Apr 18, 2017

The ELAStiC (Electronic Longitudinal Alcohol Study in Communities) project

IJPDS (2017) Issue 1, Vol 1:264 Proceedings of the IPDLN Conference (August 2016)

Ashley Akbari, Ronan Lyons, Damon Berridge, John Gallacher, John MacLeod, Jon Heron, Matthew Hickman, Liam Mahedy, Mark Bellis, David Fone, Shantini Paranjothy, Laszlo Trefan, Annette Evans, Frank Dunstan, Karen Tingay, Amrita Bandyopadhyay, Vanessa Gross, Yu-Chiao Wang, Simon Moore
Published online: Apr 18, 2017

Clinical Validation of the UKMS Register Minimal Dataset utilising Natural Language Processing

IJPDS (2017) Issue 1, Vol 1:268 Proceedings of the IPDLN Conference (August 2016)

Rod Middleton, Ashley Akbari, Hazel Lockhart-Jones, Jemma Jones, Charlotte Owen, Stella Hughes, Richard Gain, David Ford
Published online: Apr 18, 2017

Privacy protected graphical functionality in DataSHIELD

IJPDS (2017) Issue 1, Vol 1:276 Proceedings of the IPDLN Conference (August 2016)

Demetris Avraam, Amadou Gaye, Julia Isaeva, Thomas Burton, Rebecca Wilson, Andrew Turner, Paul Burton
Published online: Apr 19, 2017

Disseminating findings from the Data Analysis with Privacy Protection for Epidemiological Research (DAPPER) workshop

IJPDS (2017) Issue 1, Vol 1:281 Proceedings of the IPDLN Conference (August 2016)

Rebecca Wilson, Paul Burton, Innes Asher, Kim Carter, Adriana Castelli, David Cumin, Chris Evelo, Lesley Stewart, Kelvin Tsoi, Emma White
Published online: Apr 19, 2017

Patient Engagement as a Component of a Learning Healthcare System: A case study using small area rate variation research in Nova Scotia, Canada

IJPDS (2017) Issue 1, Vol 1:285 Proceedings of the IPDLN Conference (August 2016)

Adrian Levy, George Kephart, Laura Dowling, Jonathan Dyer, Frederick Burge, Frank Atherton, Adrian MacKenzie, Leslie Anne, Juergen Krause, Ted McDonald
Published online: Apr 19, 2017

Investigating antimicrobial prescribing pattern before the development of CDI using data linkage

IJPDS (2017) Issue 1, Vol 1:292 Proceedings of the IPDLN Conference (August 2016)

Jiafeng Pan, Kim Kavanagh, Charis Marwick, Camilla Wuiff, Peter Davey, Scott Bryson, Chris Robertson, Marion Bennie
Published online: Apr 19, 2017

Looked after children and access to dental services and oral health in Scotland: a national data-linkage study (LAC-DENTAL)

IJPDS (2017) Issue 1, Vol 1:303 Proceedings of the IPDLN Conference (August 2016)

Alex McMahon, Katharine Sharpe, Lorna Macpherson, Rachael Wood, Graham Connelly, Ian Milligan, Philip Wilson, Albert King, Lawrie Elliott, David Conway
Published online: Apr 19, 2017

The healthcare costs of heart failure during the last five years of life: A retrospective cohort study

IJPDS (2017) Issue 1, Vol 1:318 Proceedings of the IPDLN Conference (August 2016)

William Hollingworth, Mousumi Biswas, Rachel Maishman, Mark Dayer, Theresa McDonagh, Sarah Purdy, Barnaby Reeves, Chris Rogers, Rachael Williams, Maria Pufulete
Published online: Apr 19, 2017

Automated de-identification of clinical free-text

IJPDS (2017) Issue 1, Vol 1:324 Proceedings of the IPDLN Conference (August 2016)

Azad Dehghan, Tom Liptrot, Catherine O’hara, Matthew Barker-Hewitt, Daniel Tibble, Goran Nenadic
Published online: Apr 19, 2017

Codifying unstructured data: A Natural Language Processing approach to extract rich data from clinical letters

IJPDS (2017) Issue 1, Vol 1:333 Proceedings of the IPDLN Conference (August 2016)

Arron Lacey, Jane Lyons, Ashley Akbari, Samantha L Turner, Angharad M Walters, Beata Fonferko-Shadrach, Owen Pickrell, Mark I Rees, Ronan A Lyons, David V Ford, Rod M Middleton
Published online: Apr 19, 2017

Identification and validation of myocardial infarction and stroke outcomes at scale in UK Biobank

IJPDS (2017) Issue 1, Vol 1:337 Proceedings of the IPDLN Conference (August 2016)

Christian Schnier, Spiros Denaxas, Rosalind Eggo, Riyaz Patel, Qiuli Zhang, Rebecca Woodfield, Robin Flaig, Harry Hemingway, Cathie Sudlow
Published online: Apr 19, 2017

Creating a platform for collaborative genomic research

IJPDS (2017) Issue 1, Vol 1:339 Proceedings of the IPDLN Conference (August 2016)

Mark Smithson, James Frost, Julie Williams, Rebecca Simms, Elisa Majounie, Christine Kitchen, Nandini Badarinarayan, Andrew Moreton, Nicola Denning, Christian Bannister
Published online: Apr 19, 2017

Social Housing and Health in Manitoba

IJPDS (2017) Issue 1, Vol 1:354 Proceedings of the IPDLN Conference (August 2016)

Mark Smith, Greg Finlayson, Patricia Martens, Jim Dunn, Heather Prior, Carole Taylor, Ruth-Ann Soodeen, Aynslie Hinds, Charles Burchill, Wendy Guenette
Published online: Apr 19, 2017

Harnessing multiple data sources to good program planning for Rural US Veterans

IJPDS (2017) Issue 1, Vol 1:372 Proceedings of the IPDLN Conference (August 2016)

Teresa Hudson, Alyson Littman, Mary Bollinger, Edwin Wong, Karen Drummond, Erin Finley, Traci Abraham, Jeffrey Pyne, John Fortney
Published online: Apr 19, 2017

Reusable, set-based selection algorithm for matched control groups

IJPDS (2017) Issue 1, Vol 1:373 Proceedings of the IPDLN Conference (August 2016)

Daniel Thayer, John W Gregory, Liv Kosnes, Damon Berridge, Martin L Heaven, David V Ford, Keith Lloyd, Ann John
Published online: Apr 19, 2017