Nazarbayev University School of Medicine congratulates Dr. Abduzhappar Gaipov with the successful starting of his project on the clinical epidemiology of big data and starting publications. Dr. Abduzhappar Gaipov is a board-certified nephrologist in Kazakhstan and has been working at the Nazarbayev University School of Medicine as an Assistant Professor since January 2019. He did his PostDoc at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (2017-2018, Memphis, TN, USA) and studied on several projects related to Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology and Research Methodology. Now, he is the PI of the nationwide epidemiologic project entitled “Aggregation and utilization of the large-scale administrative health data in Kazakhstan for population health research and surveillance” and started his publications in related topics. This research project aims for the development of a research center for disease control and prevention of chronic communicable and non-communicable diseases, using modern epidemiological analytic approaches and advanced biostatistical evaluation of “Big Health Data” records.

In the context of this project, Dr. Gaipov with his collaborators (Drs Alpamys Issanov and Mohamad Aaljofan) has recently published an original article entitled “Dose equivalency and efficacy of biosimilar erythropoietin stimulating agents: Data from real clinical practice” in a Pharmacology Research and Perspectives, which is one of the official (Q1 rated) journal of British Pharmacological Society. This is the first study from Kazakhstan that intended at evaluating the impact of switching from original-recombinant erythropoietin stimulating agents (rESA) to biosimilar bESA on patients with renal anemia from the real clinical setting using electronic medical records. The data analysis showed no difference in efficacy on maintaining hemoglobin target levels and dose equivalency between rESA and bESA, and also long‐term use of lower doses of bESA maintained hemoglobin within the target levels.

Another study from Nationwide Big Health Data entitled “Epidemiology of dialysis patients in Kazakhstan: data from nationwide large-scale registry 2014-2018” has been presented in national and international congresses and currently under the consideration for publication in BMC Nephrology. This is also the first study among Central Asian countries, investigating the clinical epidemiology of dialysis patients using large-scale administrative health data that has recently become available in Kazakhstan since the Digital Healthcare system has been implemented. The results showed a significant increase in the prevalence and incidence rates and a decrease in the mortality rate of dialysis patients over the last 5 years.

In the following years, several studies investigating many of chronic communicable and non-communicable diseases will be done using Big Health Data records. The research findings from the current project will provide a better and more comprehensive understanding of the prevalence, incidence, and mortality rate in Kazakhstan, and will be helpful to policymakers to organize the right measures and preventive actions. Several young scientists, MD and MPH students will be involved in this project, and they will be able to get knowledge and gain skills on basic and advanced biomedical statistics, working on several proposals.