The following is a guest article by Josh Schoeller, CEO, Health Care business of LexisNexis® Risk Solutions & Global President, Elsevier Clinical Solutions.
Connecting datasets with unparalleled precision unlocks better health for all
The healthcare industry has widely acknowledged the importance of enabling patient-centered care. We all seem to agree that understanding patients and their unique healthcare journeys provides a more complete picture and increases the chances of positive health outcomes. Real-word data (RWD) can provide this insight, but today’s RWD is incomplete, often restricted to only a fraction of a patient’s story.
To realize the full potential of RWD, we must put the patient at the center and truly understand each patient’s unique circumstances over time. It’s certainly a tall order when the data we need is scattered across siloed systems and guarded by applicable and necessary patient privacy regulations.
For the last 20 years or so, we’ve been aggregating disparate de-identified datasets leveraging programs using various crypto hash tokenization processes. However, this legacy tokenization technology uses probabilistic and deterministic matching based on the presented Personal Identifiable Information (PII) and because of the variation in this PII over time and different sources, it lacks the critical capability of precision for RWD applications.
I want to be clear; this legacy tokenization process for data aggregation is fine for the historical commercial sales and marketing applications, but when it comes to clinical research and studying optimal health outcomes, patient longitudinal precision is essential. This is why we embarked on developing LexisNexis® Gravitas™, a revolutionary next-generation token leveraging a referential data layer to securely enable the creation of de-identified datasets with unparalleled accuracy.
Data for Good is in our DNA
For half a century, LexisNexis Risk Solutions has been in the business of using data for good. Preserving data security and privacy is the foundational principle on which our business was built. We enable data and analytic solutions that drive new insights to improve our society and, in this case, healthcare.
With that legacy in mind, we developed a HIPAA-compliant way to link de-identified datasets, unlocking a new era of RWD. Beyond meeting expert determination requirements, we require all users of our regulated data to register their permitted use. This enables us to monitor downstream use cases and verify their compliance.
With the Gravitas™ Token, we can link a wide range of de-identified datasets like social determinants of health data (SDoH), mortality data, medical claims data, and more to create a more holistic and longitudinal view of a patient’s story. This combination of clinical and non-clinical records opens the door to generate real-world evidence (RWE) for more impactful and inclusive research leading towards improved patient outcomes and more equitable access to care.
The use cases are limitless, but let’s take the health issue that’s been front and center for quite some time, COVID-19. One of the biggest challenges with bringing new therapies and treatments to market is ensuring they’re safe. To do so, researchers need to conduct multiple phases of clinical studies and meet the FDA’s rigorous approval processes with statistically significant results.
But further questions emerged rapidly. How long does a vaccination dose last? Which patients are most at risk and who benefited most? And are these therapies safe over time or are there side effects not yet transparent or represented in the trial cohort? If we combine the right sets of data to follow up on the initial approval, we have an opportunity to shorten the cycle by weeks, months, maybe even years. Imagine if we could have launched therapies that are just now coming to market two years ago when the pandemic hit. Some of these new treatments are significantly cutting down the viral capacity of COVID-19 if taken within the first 24 hours of experiencing symptoms.
Another application of RWD is comparator arms or historic best practice treatments. Think of the lives that could be saved if we were able to quickly aggregate the datasets needed to complete the clinical trials and expedite the development of those therapies. You can apply that same concept to diseases that have been around for decades like lupus and diabetes. With the Gravitas Token, we can create more diverse cohorts that can help us better understand health disparities and improve health equity.
Beyond clinical research, longitudinal patient datasets are also very effective for hospital systems. We’re moving to a value-based care system, and everybody wants to create healthier communities. To better benchmark their practices and outcomes and to have the ability to study larger cohorts, hospitals need to integrate data beyond what’s in their own electronic health records.
The Gravitas Token represents a pivotal opportunity for RWD and the healthcare industry. It will take the idea of using data for good to a whole new level by empowering researchers and clinicians to provide better and more equitable patient outcomes.
The Gravitas Network: putting quality over quantity
The Health Care business of LexisNexis Risk Solutions has very powerful and unique data assets, and we know there are other data assets on the market, including genomics, lab, wearables, rural and community health. Combining these assets with our core data will grow the overall value and potential of this data exponentially. This is where the Gravitas Network, a fully interoperable data platform comprised of high-quality datasets from a range of strategic data partners, comes into focus.
Other networks on the market seem to believe that the more data they offer the better. We’re taking a different approach. We really want to look at this through a very clinical lens. We want data partners that truly will help answer more clinical questions and help create healthier communities. It is not about more; it’s about having the best quality and curating the right partners who not only add their data but also help contextualize the data. All of this requires precise data linking over a longer period of time, across patients’ many variations and changes of address, provider and insurer, which is the underpinning value proposition of Gravitas.
The combination of data partners, core data sets, and next-generation tokenization technology will pave the way to a new era of truly patient-centric RWD that enables more impactful research and more equitable access to care, further enabling what we all deserve – better health.
If you are interested in learning more about the Gravitas Token, Core or Network, get in touch with LexisNexis Risk Solutions here.
About Josh Schoeller
Josh is the CEO of the Health Care business of LexisNexis Risk Solutions and the President of Clinical Solutions for Elsevier. He has over 20 years of experience across payer, provider, life sciences and pharmacy industries, leading product and growth strategies. Contact him at https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-schoeller-8566a8/
About the Health Care Business of LexisNexis Risk Solutions
Serving customers across the payer, provider, pharmacy, life sciences, and health IT markets, the Health Care business of LexisNexis Risk Solutions enables organizations to solve a range of challenges like patient engagement, identity access management, data de-identification and linking, and compliance. The organization is committed to using data for good and addresses these challenges by leveraging industry-leading consumer, medical claims, provider, and social determinants of health data to deliver actionable insights that increase efficiency, improve patient outcomes, and create healthier communities. Learn more at https://risk.lexisnexis.com/healthcare
There is a solution from a “behind the scenes” problem-solver that for over a decade, Adaptive Clinical Systems, has assisted clinical trial operations move from the chaos of disordered systems and fragmented, multiple data sources to improved data flows and overall better data management. Please read the Life Sciences Review article: https://lnkd.in/gq-nsXG2