1. QALIBRA - Introduction
Helga Gunnlaugsdóttir (Co-ordinator)
Matis, Reykjavík, Iceland
BRAFO Kick off meeting

2. “Quality of life – integrated benefit-risk assessment”
Partners:
Matis (IS, coordinator)
Central Science Laboratory (UK)
RIVM (NL)
Wageningen University (NL)
University of Patras (GR)
Altagra (HU)
IPIMAR (PT)
Website:

3. Integrating health risks and benefits
Dietary recommendations need to take account of both positive and negative health effects
To do this quantitatively:
Model all relevant health effects
Convert to common measure of impact (e.g. DALY or QALY)
Integrate to estimate net impact
Take account of variability and uncertainty
BRAFO Kick off meeting

4. QALIBRA scientific objectives
Develop a suite of quantitative methods for assessing and integrating food risks & benefits
Make them available to stakeholders as web-enabled software
Develop effective strategies for risk/benefit communication
Validate through comprehensive case studies on oily fish and functional foods
BRAFO Kick off meeting
web-based software

5. Start April 1st 2006 End September 30th 2009 Ongoing for 22 months
Timeline
Start April 1st 2006
End September 30th 2009
Ongoing for 22 months
BRAFO Kick off meeting

6. 36 deliverables altogether (3,5 years)
Main deliverables at the end of the project:
New approaches for assessing, integrating and communicating food risks & benefits
Implementation of methods as web-based software
Workshop to train end-users and test/refine the software
Scientific papers
BRAFO Kick off meeting

7. Problem formulation CASE STUDY 1a – oily fish
Focus on oily fish (e.g. salmon, trout, herring etc.)
Ignore all other foods including non-oily fish
Simplified analysis of one adverse and one beneficial effect (selected arbitrarily for illustration)
Focus on UK adult population, age group 19-64
Assess different consumption scenarios:
Reference scenario: current consumption
“Recommended” consumption: 1 portion oily fish/week
Net health impact estimated in DALYs
BRAFO Kick off meeting

8. Methods and Approaches
New approaches for quantifying variation and uncertainty in net health impacts, including Bayesian modelling and Monte Carlo simulation
Specialised approach to software design and testing to ensure usability of web-based tool
Social science approaches including focus groups and Delphi studies on the communication of risk-benefit information
BRAFO Kick off meeting

9. Case study 2: phytosterol enriched foods
Case studies
Case study 1: oily fish
1A – Preliminary study: one food, one beneficial effect, one adverse effect, one population
1B – Detailed study: most important (fish) foods, multiple effects, multiple populations
Case study 2: phytosterol enriched foods
BRAFO Kick off meeting

10. Quality of data
Literature search of published literature in PubMed etc
Criteria of the WHO are used to evaluate the quality of the studies and the consistency of the evidence
The classifying criteria are:
convincing evidence,
probable evidence,
possible evidence,
insufficient evidence.
Björn sammála ?
BRAFO Kick off meeting

11. Results already achieved
Case study 1A: on oily fish
Preliminary study: one food, one beneficial effect, one adverse effect, one population.
Was essentially a feasibility analysis of conceptual framework for integrating benefits and risks – not a definitive analysis
Version 1 of system (QALIBRA-tool) with functions for basic operations
Version 4 of general framework
Report on 1st focus group study, on communication of risk-benefit analysis outputs
Cluster activities with Beneris (e.g. Meetings & workshops, sharing of methodologies & ideas)
Case study 1B – Detailed study: most important (fish) foods, multiple effects, multiple populations
Case study 2: phytosterol enriched foods
BRAFO Kick off meeting

12. Expected impact
Strategic impact:
Contribute to solving important types of societal problems by developing methodologies and tools that provide better information on the overall health impacts of different foods & effective communication strategies for risk-benefit information
Innovation activities:
Innovative methodologies and tools for assessing and communicating risk-benefit information on foods
Exploitation:
Web-based software for all stakeholders (different access/functions for different stakeholder groups)
BRAFO Kick off meeting

13. Potential synergies with BRAFO
Additional case studies in BRAFO i.e. fish (as in QALIBRA and BENERIS) as well as soy, folic acid, macronutrient replacement.
Beneficial and complementary if BRAFO would include a special focus on developing an efficient tiered assessment process and specific approaches for lower-tier approaches to risk-benefit assessment
lower-tier approaches. There are three reasons for this: firstly, the methods being developed in QALIBRA and BENERIS are aimed more at intensive higher-tier assessments which would not be practical to apply routinely to every problem, so there is a strong need for lower tier methods to allow more rapid and efficient filtering of assessments and identify those that do not require the high resources of a higher tier assessment. Second, being a coordination project BRAFO does not have funds to support the substantial research effort needed to develop further higher tier methodology. Third, by focussing on lower tier methodology BRAFO will maximise its complementarily to the other projects, make maximum use of the resources available to it, and provide maximum benefit to its stakeholders
BRAFO Kick off meeting

14. SWOT analysis for QALIBRA
Strength:
Co-operation between leading institutions in Europe with complementary expertise in risk and benefit assessment methodologies, uncertainty analysis, risk communication etc
Weakness:
Several aspects of the project are complex & challenging
Opportunities:
Quantitative methods and web-based tool for assessing and integrating food risks & benefits
Threats:
Dissemination and uptake of complex systems can be threat to the QALiBRA outcome in the long run
Callenge: Developing a general framework, Integration of risks and benefits requires conversion to a common currency, Quantification of uncertainty presents significant theoretical and computational challenges, Limitations in available data on health risks and benefits , Implementation as web-enabled software & user-friendliness
BRAFO Kick off meeting