Digital technology is changing how we collect data for research purposes, and the amount of information collected is growing exponentially. As drug development is focusing on more complex products targeting smaller populations, larger databases to establish the link between the drug and potential unwanted, and in certain cases, extremely rare events are required.

In this article, Dr Steffen Thirstrup explores the past and present approaches to coordinate the collection and analysis of real world data and present updates on the new EU Data Analysis and Real World Interrogation Network (DARWIN EU).