Abstract Background: A rare disease is a medical condition with low prevalence in the general population, but these can collectively affect up to 10% of the population. Thus, rare diseases have a significant impact on the health care system, and health professionals must be familiar with their diagnosis, management, and treatment. Objective: This paper aims to provide health indicators regarding the rare diseases in Brazil and to create a network of reference centers with health professionals from different regions of the country. RARASnet proposes to map, analyze, and communicate all the data regarding the infrastructure of the centers and the patients' progress or needs. The focus of the proposed study is to provide all the technical infrastructure and analysis, following the World Health Organization and the Brazilian Ministry of Health guidelines. Methods: To build this digitized system, we will provide a security framework to assure the privacy and protection of each patient when collecting data. Systems development life cycle methodologies will also be applied to align software development, infrastructure operation, and quality assurance. After data collection of all information designed by the specialists, the computational analysis, modeling, and results will be communicated in scientific research papers and a digital health observatory. Results: The project has several activities, and it is in an initial stage. Initially, a survey was given to all health care centers to understand the technical aspects of each network member, such as the existence of computers, technical support staff, and digitized systems. In this survey, we detected that 59% (23/39) of participating health units have electronic medical records, while 41% (16/39) have paper records. Therefore, we will have different strategies to access the data from each center in the data collection phase. Later, we will standardize and analyze the clinical and epidemiological data and use these data to develop a national network for monitoring rare diseases and a digital health observatory to make the information available. The project had its financing approved in December 2019. Retrospective data collection started in October 2020, and we expect to finish in January 2021. During the third quarter of 2020, we enrolled 40 health institutions from all regions of Brazil. Conclusions: The nature of rare disease diagnosis is complex and diverse, and many problems will be faced in the evolution of the project. However, decisions based on data analysis are the best option for the improvement of the rare disease network in Brazil. The creation of RARASnet, along with all the digitized infrastructure, can improve the accessibility of information and standardization of rare diseases in the country.

Abstract Background The Brazilian Policy for Comprehensive Care for People with Rare Diseases was implemented in 2014; however, national epidemiological data on rare diseases (RDs) are scarce and mainly focused on specific disorders. To address this gap, University Hospitals, Reference Services for Neonatal Screening, and Reference Services for Rare Diseases, all of which are public health institutions, established the Brazilian Rare Diseases Network (RARAS) in 2020. The objective of this study was to perform a comprehensive nationwide epidemiological investigation of individuals with RDs in Brazil. This retrospective survey collected data from patients receiving care in 34 healthcare facilities affiliated with RARAS in 2018 and 2019. Results The survey included 12,530 participants with a median age of 15.0 years, with women representing 50.5% of the cohort. Classification according to skin color demonstrated that 5044 (47.4%) participants were admixed. Most had a confirmed diagnosis (63.2%), with a predominance of phenylketonuria (PKU), cystic fibrosis (CF), and acromegaly. Common clinical manifestations included global developmental delay and seizures. The average duration of the diagnostic odyssey was 5.4 years (± 7.9 years). Among the confirmed diagnoses, 52.2% were etiological (biochemical: 42.5%; molecular: 30.9%), while 47.8% were clinical. Prenatal diagnoses accounted for 1.2%. Familial recurrence and consanguinity rates were 21.6% and 6.4%, respectively. Mainstay treatments included drug therapy (55.0%) and rehabilitation (15.6%). The Public Health System funded most diagnoses (84.2%) and treatments (86.7%). Hospitalizations were reported in 44.5% of cases, and the mortality rate was 1.5%, primarily due to motor neuron disease and CF. Conclusion This study marks a pioneering national-level data collection effort for rare diseases in Brazil, offering novel insights to advance the understanding, management, and resource allocation for RDs. It unveils an average diagnostic odyssey of 5.4 years and a higher prevalence of PKU and CF, possibly associated with the specialized services network, which included newborn screening services.

Introdução: Trata-se de um inquérito de representatividade nacional acerca da epidemiologia, quadro clínico, recursos diagnósticos e terapêuticos empregados em indivíduos com Doenças Raras no Brasil. O Hospital estudado é um dos principais centros envolvidos. Apesar do avanço no diagnóstico, ainda são escassos os dados sobre estas afecções, e tais dados, quando existentes, restringem-se a doenças específicas. Objetivos: Realizar um inquérito acerca dos dados sócio demográficos, quadro clínico, recursos diagnósticos e terapêuticos em indivíduos com DR de origem genética e não genética em um Serviço de Referência em Doenças Raras. Metodologia: Trata-se de um estudo retrospectivo, com coleta de dados sobre identificação, diagnóstico e tratamento dos pacientes atendidos nos anos de 2018/2019, por meio de revisão de prontuários eletrônicos e físicos. Foram utilizados formulários validados, em banco de dados computacionais com uso de ferramentas em nuvem (InterNuvem-USP). Resultados: A casuística envolveu 1.751 indivíduos, sendo 61,9% com diagnóstico confirmado, 20,1% com suspeita diagnóstica e 18,0% sem diagnóstico. Houve mais de 200 diagnósticos, porém, um grupo de 20 doenças foram responsáveis por quase metade dos diagnósticos, sendo as mais prevalentes osteogênese imperfeita (10,3%), distrofias musculares (4,8%) e síndrome de Turner (4,2%). Houve pequeno predomínio do sexo feminino (51,1%) . A idade apresentou mediana de 15 anos e 96,8% nasceram no Nordeste, sendo que 49,6% residiam na região metropolitana de Salvador- Bahia. Do total, 65,4% apresentaram internação prévia e 0,7% vieram à óbito. Referente ao diagnóstico, 56,9% foi clínico e 43,1% com definição etiológica. A maioria, 96,6% foi diagnosticada após o nascimento e a idade do início dos sintomas obteve mediana de 2 anos. As medianas das idades materna e paterna foram de 26 e 30, respectivamente. A recorrência familiar foi de 36,7%, com 16,1% de consanguinidade parental. Tratamento específico relacionado à DR esteve presente em 61,7% da amostra, sendo preponderante o medicamentoso com 55,3%, em que 79,1% foi financiado pelo SUS. O acompanhamento com outras especialidades médicas foi de 89,9%, e as especialidades com maiores percentuais foram neurologia (25,8), endocrinologia (21,9%) e oftalmologia (15,8%). Conclusão: É fundamental o conhecimento desses dados epidemiológicos de um centro de referência, para melhor gestão das lindas de cuidado, bem como estabelecimento de medidas de atenção à saúde às DR de forma regionalizada.