The Netherlands Federation of University Medical Centres (NFU) and Elsevier recently launched a new tool: the ‘Rare Disease Monitor’.

It was developed to support research into rare diseases in the Netherlands. The monitor’s free dashboard contains information about the type of rare diseases being researched in a particular Dutch medical research institute.

For each institute, the Rare Disease Monitor offers insight into which rare disease is being studied there, how many publications have been produced about it, how often those publications have been cited, etc. This information is linked to the ORPHAcodes, the European standard for classifying rare diseases. The dashboard enables research institutes, healthcare professionals, scientists, patients’ organisations and research sponsors to recognise opportunities for research and form collaborations.

The dashboard was produced jointly by the NFU and Elsevier. It is part of the Open Science collaboration between Dutch universities, research sponsors and Elsevier (EPDOS). The dashboard is available here.