COVID-19 Research Database Partners with the HHS Technology Group to Create a Scalable, Repeatable Model for Research

SAN FRANCISCO AND FT. LAUDERDALE – June 7, 2022 – The COVID-19 Research Database (the Database), a pro bono initiative led by numerous prominent companies whose mission is to accelerate real world pandemic research to understand the disease and inform evidence-based healthcare policy, today announced a partnership with HHS Technology Group, an expert in delivering purpose-built data and analytics solutions. The partnership will help broaden access to valuable real world data for public health research by combining data from a coalition of industry-leading health data providers with HHS Technology Group’s platform and Datavant’s de-identification technology into an accessible and scalable product offering.

As of May 2022, the COVID-19 Research Database contains over 85 billion HIPAA-compliant, patient-level records and has powered over 70 publications and presentations addressing the direct and indirect effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on population health. The research has informed health policies to help address issues exacerbated by the pandemic, such as racial, ethnic and gender disparities in care and outcomes. The COVID-19 Research Database community comprises over 3,500 registered researchers from more than 400 unique institutions, including prominent state and federal government agencies and all 30 top medical schools. The Database has been supported by a group of dedicated partners including including Change Healthcare, Datavant, the Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI), Healthjump, Medidata (a Dassault Systèmes company), Mirador Analytics, Munich Re Life US, Office Ally, Ovation.io, PointClickCare, SAS, StataCorp, and Veradigm. It was a recipient of the Reagan Udall Foundation for the FDA Innovations in Regulatory Science Award in 2021, recognizing its novel framework as a repeatable blueprint for a national health data sharing infrastructure for critical research.

“By making comprehensive, near-real time data accessible to researchers, the COVID-19 Research Database has enabled many findings that may otherwise have been impossible,” said Dr. Mark Cullen, former Professor of Medicine at Stanford University and chair of the COVID-19 Research Database Scientific Steering Committee. “A partnership with the HHS Technology Group provides an incredible opportunity to continue accelerating research and bridging pandemic learnings into concrete positive changes across society.”

Through deployment of HHS Technology Group’s Discover Your Data (DyD) platform, the Database’s real-world datasets and analytical tools will continue to be made available to public health researchers at no cost to derive insights about the COVID-19 pandemic and related health challenges.

DyD provides researchers with state-of-the-art data visualization and analysis capabilities and enables smooth and efficient collaboration across research groups. Together with HHS Technology Group partners like Mathematica Policy Research who provide industry-leading data science and research expertise, the combined Research Database will serve to significantly accelerate the research community’s path to publication. Once published, the expanded Database network provides researchers with increased ability to operationalize their learnings into necessary change across public health and policy.

“The COVID-19 Research Database has demonstrated that real-world data, made accessible through an open platform, can drive cutting-edge research and inform a better understanding of public health,” said Brett Furst, President of HHS Technology Group. “We are thrilled to be partnering with the Database coalition to further accelerate research learnings, and continue translating those learnings into systemic change throughout healthcare.”

The HHS Technology Group and the COVID-19 Research Database will work together to provide an open Research Database to an expanding community of researchers, public health leaders, government agencies, and policy makers.

***

Several of the initiative’s leaders and participants expressed the continued importance of the effort and the incredible momentum and opportunity for the Research Database:

“In the midst of pandemic uncertainty, the Database has shown how linkable real-world and SDoH data in the hands of researchers can illuminate much-needed answers and connect them to real-world changes.” – Dave Kelly, Chief Executive Officer of AnalyticsIQ

“Change Healthcare is delighted to help our country’s leading researchers drive valuable improvements for healthcare’s most prominent issues. The research Database’s governance helps to ensure that research questions are interrogated and derived with the utmost integrity.” – Tim Suther, Senior Vice President & General Manager, Data Solutions, of Change Healthcare

“The COVID-19 Research Database is the single most impactful project I have worked on in my career. If there is a silver lining to the pandemic, it is my hope that this becomes a template for how real-world data can be used in the future to improve public health.” – Travis May, Co-Founder and President of Datavant

“As COVID-19 evolved, the Database successfully demonstrated the technology and organizational features required to provide near real-time real-world health data for research. The next challenge is how to make those features work across time, larger and larger data sets, and with a sustainable economic model so that we empower researchers to answer an even broader set of questions. Partnership with the HHS Technology Group and Mathematica Policy Research is a step in this direction.” – Martin Aboitiz, Founder and CEO of Healthjump

“The COVID-19 Research Database is a first-of-its-kind model for making comprehensive, granular, and de-identified data available for research while preserving patient privacy. HealthWise Data is thrilled to partner with the HHS Technology Group and Mathematica Policy Research through the Database to expand how linked data is used to deliver solutions to the most intractable problems in health.” – Anne Smith, Founder and CEO of HealthWise Data

“The Database has shown how bridging disparate data and technology resources in a unified, accessible platform can unlock critical learnings. At Medidata, we are eager to build on this proof point and apply the model to address further challenges in public health.” – Arnaub Chatterjee, Senior Vice President of Product at Acorn AI, the data sciences entity of Medidata Solutions

“Given the effects COVID-19 continues to have on our society, it is essential that we make every effort to collaborate in enabling comprehensive research into the impacts of the disease. Munich Re is excited to participate in this next phase of the successful integration of real world data based on privacy-preserving principles.” – Patrick Sullivan, Senior Vice President of Integrated Analytics at Munich Re North America Life

“The Database has shown how researchers can positively impact scientific understanding and policy when they have access to the right real-world data. As we enter the next phase of the pandemic, Office Ally is thrilled to continue enabling researchers as they derive new learnings and translate findings to concrete improvements.” – Christopher Hart, CEO of Office Ally

“The COVID-19 Research Database has demonstrated the importance of using linked real-world data to effectively understand and respond to complex public health challenges. As the pandemic evolves, Ovation is eager to see the Research Database continue to help researchers translate study learnings into healthcare improvements and preparation for the future.” – Curt Medeiros, CEO, Ovation.io

“The COVID-19 pandemic has had a heterogeneous and disproportionate impact across the US and the world. The Database has shown the importance of understanding that nuance through comprehensive and linked real-world data, and we are eager to see the initiative’s next chapter expand on that impact to bring specialized solutions to uniquely vulnerable populations.” – Jeff Wessinger, VP & GM, Life Sciences at PointClickCare

“SAS is committed to enhancing the nation’s data infrastructure and applying powerful analytics to better investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and other high-need areas of public health. The Research Database offers an unprecedented opportunity for collaboration between researchers, government, and the private sector to accelerate and implement novel solutions.” – Dr. Steve Kearney, Global Medical Director, SAS

“The Database has proven a repeatable model for privacy-preserving data access and analysis. We are excited to partner with the Database, the HHS Technology Group, and Mathematica Policy Research to make this valuable data sharing infrastructure accessible to a growing community of researchers and public health users.”  – Stuart Green, SVP & GM, Life Sciences at Veradigm

To learn more about the COVID-19 Research Database, please visit: https://covid19researchdatabase.org or inquire at contact@covid19researchdatabase.org

About HHS Technology Group, LLC

HHS Technology Group is a software and solutions company serving the needs of commercial enterprises and government agencies. HHS Tech Group delivers modular software solutions, custom development, and integration services for modernization and operation of systems supporting a wide spectrum of business and government needs. For more information about HHS Technology Group, visit www.hhstechgroup.com.

About Datavant

Datavant’s mission is to connect the world’s health data to improve patient outcomes. Datavant works to reduce the friction of data sharing across the healthcare industry by building technology that protects the privacy of patients while supporting the linkage of patient health records across datasets. Learn more about Datavant at www.datavant.com.