Belgian Treatment Demand Indicator Register
Belgian Treatment Demand Indicator RegisterWelcome to the technical documentation pages for the project "Belgian Treatment Demand Indicator Register", provided by the service healthdata.be (Sciensano).
These pages provide information about the technical processes of the project. The following sections are (will be) provided:
- General project information
- The data collection
- The data transfer
- The data validation (documentation in progress)
- The data analysis (documentation in progress)
- The data reporting and visualisation (documentation in progress)
For scientific information of the project, please contact the primary organization that oversees implementation of project (see section "General project information").
This documentation is being updated regularly. We try to provide as correct, complete and clear as possible information on these pages. Nevertheless, if you see anything in the documentation that is not correct, does not match your experience or requires further clarification, please create a request (type : request for information) via our portal (https://sciensano.service-now.com/sp) or send us an e-mail via support.healthdata@sciensano.be to report this documentation issue. Please, do not forget to mention the URL or web address of the page with the documentation issue. We will then adjust the documentation as soon as possible. Thank you!
General BTDIR project information
General BTDIR project informationProject name
Belgian Treatment Demand Indicator Register
Project abbreviation
BTDIR
Project code
HDBP0006
Primary organization that oversees implementation of project
- Sciensano
Partner organization participating in project
- Not available
Organization that commissioned this project
- European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction
Organization providing monetary or material support
- National Institute for Health and Disability Insurance (RIZIV-INAMI)
Brief project description
SCOPE
European drug policies and action plans require sound and comprehensive evidence on what are the main issues in the drug problematic and how to intervene. In order to obtain a better understanding of the different aspects of the drug phenomenon as well as the impact of related measures, the information exchange, data collection and monitoring of the drug situation at the European level are of great importance.
A comprehensive understanding of the extent of the drug use problem requires a review of several indicators:
- the magnitude of drug use measured by prevalence in the general population,
- the potential of problem drug use as measured by drug use among young people,
- drug-related morbidity and mortality and costs and
- consequences of drug use measured by treatment demand.
TREATMENT DEMAND INDICATOR (TDI)
Effective prevention of health problems and other consequences of substance use requires information on the characteristics and patterns of use, as well as data on associated problems. When people with substance use disorders come into contact with health professionals, the data collected is an essential source of information for epidemiology. To this end, the Treatment Demand Indicator (TDI) has been adopted and standardised as an epidemiological indicator in the European Union on behalf of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA).
OBJECTIVE
The objective of the Treatment Demand Indicator is to collect information in a harmonised and comparable way across all Member States on the number and profile of people entering drug treatment (clients) during each calendar year. Although the name of the indicator is the ‘Treatment Demand Indicator’, it collects information on people entering treatment. TDI is widely recognised as the instrument for collecting and reporting data on people entering treatment for their drug use inside and outside Europe, as an indirect indicator of the unobserved level of people that are potentially in need of drug treatment.
The primary purpose of the information collected by the TDI indicator is :
- to gain insights into the characteristics, risk behaviours and drug use patterns of people with drug problems entering treatment;
- to help to estimate trends in the extent and patterns of problem drug use, ideally in combination with other drug indicators;
- to calculate prevalence and incidence rates of addiction treatment using indirect methods alongside with other datasets;
- to set up more specific studies by linking this register using the same identifier to other national registries using the same identifier (mortality register, health insurance database).
EUROPEAN AND NATIONAL APPROACH
A common European data collection protocol has been developed and improved over time. Since 2000, the EMCDDA has set up a system of data reporting by the EU Member States and adopted various formal agreements with them in order to stimulate and facilitate the collection and reporting of data from the national to the European level. Currently, the indicator collects data from 30 countries (28 EU Member States, Norway and Turkey) and provides information on almost 500,000 patients per year.
Belgium started standardised data collection for TDI in 2011, when health ministers decided to set up a coordinated registration of treatment requests. Prior to this, several initiatives to gather information at different levels (region, city, groups of centres) on treatment requests for substance use problems had already taken place in Flanders, Brussels and Wallonia. But in order to provide a coherent national view of the phenomenon, it was decided to work on the basis of a national protocol.
Sciensano was appointed as the coordinator of the Belgian TDI register and charged with developing flexible and secure technical tools to facilitate the registration of data in accordance with national privacy rules. Since the 2015 registration year, the Belgian protocol has been updated to include the changes of the third European protocol.
Regulatory framework of this project
Consult the regulatory framework information published on the fair.healthdata.be pages.
Support service of healthdata.be
Support service of healthdata.beThe Service Desk of healthdata.be (Sciensano) helps users of our applications and services and deals with requests and problems when they arise.
The Service Desk focuses on those services run by our IT Services (HD4DP, HD4RES, healthstat.be,...) and helps you with accounts and passwords. For questions about the content and objective(s) of the projects, we kindly refer to the managing research organizations.
For most efficient processing of your request, we advise you to use our service portal: https://sciensano.service-now.com/sp.
Please find below our support window hours:
How to report an incident
How to report an incidentThe healthdata.be service (Sciensano) processes each incident report according to a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP). A public version of this SOP "HD Incident Management Process" is also available on this portal docs.healthdata.be.
To submit an incident related to projects and applications in production and facilitated or managed by Sciensano's healthdata.be service, you must first log into the HD Service and Support portal: https://sciensano.service-now.com/sp.
After the login step, you will arrive at the main page of the portal.
On the main page, you must select "Get Help".
A new page with the title "Create an incident" will appear.
You can now document your incident or problem by providing the following information:
Please indicate the urgency of resolving your issue based on its criticality to the business.
Please indicate the type of problem you are experiencing.
When the problem type "Application" is selected, two additional fields appear: "Project Name" and "Application".
Please select the appropriate information.
Please describe clearly and briefly (1 sentence) the subject of your problem.
Please describe the problem in detail. The following aspects are important for us to understand and solve the problem:
- a description of the actions you want to perform but fail to perform (e.g. provide us with a field name, a validation rule, a button, etc.)
- a description (if possible) of the sequential steps you follow to use the service or the application of healthdata.be for which you need support;
- a brief description of the technical problem you are experiencing (e.g. error messages)
We strongly recommend that you add a screenshot describing the problem (IMPORTANT: do not provide us with patient data!).
You can add the screenshot by clicking on "Add attachments".
On the right side of the form, the mandatory information items of the incident form are listed. When these fields are completed, their names disappear from the "required information" box.
The form can only be submitted if all required fields are filled in, by pressing the green "Submit" button.
If all required fields have not been completed, a warning message will appear at the top of the form.
In addition, missing mandatory fields will be highlighted in green.
When the incident form has been successfully submitted, a preview of your submission appears in a new screen.
On the right side of the screen you will find the details, including the incident number.
On the left side of the screen, you will find a chronology of your incident processing, starting with your creation.
Submit a request for information about HD
Submit a request for information about HDTo request information about the healthdata.be platform, you first need to log in to the HD Service and Support portal: https://sciensano.service-now.com/sp.
After the login step, you will arrive at the main page of the portal.
On the main page select "Request something".
A new page with the different types of request will appear.
Select the box "Request for information about HD".
A new page with the titles of the Request for information about HD will appear.
You can now document your request by providing following information:
Provide a short and clear description of your request for information (1 sentence).
Provide a detailed description of your request for information.
If available, please upload additional documents relevant for this request for information about HD.
On the right side of the form, the required information elements of the request form are listed. When these fields are completed, these field names will disappear in the "required information" box.
Only after all required fields have been completed, a form can be submitted by selecting the green Submit button.
If not all required fields were completed a warning message will appear on top of the form.
Also the missing required fields will be highlighting in green.
When the request form was successfully submitted, an overview of your request will appear in a new screen.
On the right of the screen, you will find the details , including the Request number
On the left of the screen, you will find a timeline of the handling your request, starting with your creation.
Email security policy
Email security policyWHAT IS THE PROBLEM?
Sciensano blocks e-mails from organizations if the configuration of their e-mail and/or DNS services allow potential abuse by spammers/attackers. More specifically, if the configuration enables other senders to impersonate your organisation by allowing them to mimic your organization’s e-mail “Header From”.
In other words, they can send phishing and spam mails that cannot be distinguished from genuine mails from your organization.
If you’re responsible for managing your ICT infrastructure, keep reading. If not, pass this message on to your ICT department or to the ICT service that’s managing your ICT infrastructure.
HOW TO SOLVE IT?
You’ll have to verify that your configuration complies with “Sender Alignment” security requirements.
More specifically, your mail services and DNS will have to be configured according to ICT standards.
These configurations are common, well-documented and supported by hosting companies. Some useful links:
- https://dmarcian.com/alignment/
- https://mxtoolbox.com/dmarc/spf/spf-alignment
- https://o365info.com/how-does-sender-verification-work-how-we-identify-spoof-mail-the-fiveheros-spf-dkim-dmarc-exchange-and-exchange-online-protection-part-9-of-9/
We’ve noticed that this issue frequently occurs in organizations which moved their ICT infrastructure to cloud services such as Microsoft (O365), Amazon, Google, and MS Azure without properly configuring the ICT infrastructure which is not managed by these providers.
The configurations and recommendations need to be implemented on the customer’s ICT infrastructure, either internally or externally. DNS and Mail services are the main ICT platforms for these actions.
THE USE OF DIFFERENT DOMAINS IN THE MAIL SENDING PROCESS
E-mails contain an “Envelope From” and a “Header From”. Both need to match to avoid that the mail is blocked.
Some examples:
- A public service is using its new domain name in the “Header From” and its old domain name in the “Envelope From”.
- Envelope From = noreply@publicservice.fgov.be
- Header From = noreply@publicservice.belgium.be
➔ These e-mails will be blocked.
Remark: Because it’s a noreply address, the sender will not even be aware of us rejecting the e-mail …
2. An organization is using a cloud service (Freshservice) for its helpdesk tool and the “Envelope From” has not been customised.
• EnvelopeFrom = bounces+us.3.52773-helpdesk=organisation.be@emailus.freshservice.com
• Header From = helpdesk@organisation.be
➔ These e-mails will be blocked.
3. A company uses a cloud service (Amazon SES) to send the delivery notification and the “Envelope From” has not been customized.
- Envelope From = 01020188573f374-96de6437-9134-45f4-8aa6-3e9ac18d5848-000000@euwest-1.amazonses.com
- Header From = noreply@company.be
➔ These e-mails will be blocked.