Datavant selected to join the NIH’s All of Us Research Program Center for Linkage and Acquisition of Data (CLAD)

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, October 25, 2023 – The National Institutes of Health’s All of Us Research Program has awarded $30 million to the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and its partners, including Datavant, to establish the Center for Linkage and Acquisition of Data (CLAD). Datavant’s specialized expertise in privacy-preserving record linkage (PPRL) and data privacy risk disclosure control will empower the seamless integration of interconnected health data to the All of Us Research Program. Thereby catalyzing groundbreaking advancements in health research and innovation while safeguarding individual privacy.

The All of Us Research Program is a historic initiative with the objective to enroll over 1 million individuals who reflect the United States’ diverse population. The data streams facilitated by CLAD will enhance the program’s mission to create one of the most diverse repositories of biomedical data, accessible to researchers seeking insights into the influences of biological, environmental, and behavioral factors on health.

Datavant, a leader in securely connecting the world’s health data, is a core member of the CLAD team, along with 11 partner organizations. Throughout the 18-month foundational phase of the award, the primary aim for the CLAD team is to safely obtain and link healthcare claims, mortality information, and environmental data such as the Environmental Justice Index provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to All of Us participant data. CLAD will utilize Datavant’s privacy-preserving platform solutions and privacy expertise as one approach to linking the program’s participant data in a safe, secure, de-identified manner. Additionally, Datavant will support statistical risk assessments on connected datasets to ensure compliance with NIH and All of Us data security and privacy requirements.

“We are thrilled to become part of the All of Us Research Program family. CLAD represents an unprecedented and innovative partnership to leverage real-world data to improve health and health equity. The realization of novel national data linkages with robust privacy controls would not be possible without Datavant’s privacy-preserving approach and deep risk de-identification expertise. It is foundational to the CLAD’s real-world data curation,” said Melissa Haendel, Ph.D., Marsico Chair in Data Science and Chief Research Informatics Officer at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, and Principal Investigator for CLAD.

Vera Mucaj, Chief Scientific Officer and Head of Public Sector at Datavant said, “We are honored to support CLAD under the leadership of Dr. Haendel, and to collaborate with the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and our esteemed CLAD partners. The All of Us Research Program presents the unparalleled opportunity to power more profound, inclusive, and data-driven research, and we’re proud to support the program by providing secure, compliant linkage of health datasets.”

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.

All of Us is a registered service mark of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS).

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The full team on the project is comprised of leading academic, data, security, and software organizations. The full list of sub-awardees includes Axle Informatics, Datavant, Emory University, Johns Hopkins University, Medical College of Wisconsin, OCHIN, Palantir Technologies, the University of Florida, the University of Iowa, the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, the University of Washington, and ZeroTrust. The All of Us Research Program’s Center for Linkage and Acquisition of Data is funded by National Institutes of Health award OT2OD036113.