Aetna and the Center for Biomedical Informatics at Harvard Medical School Announce Research Collaboration
November 17 2011 - 12:30PM
Business Wire
Aetna (NYSE: AET) and the Center for Biomedical Informatics at
Harvard Medical School today announced a research agreement aimed
at analyzing health care data in new ways to further clinical
research and improve the quality and affordability of health
care. The research will be conducted by members of the Center
for Biomedical Informatics at Harvard Medical School and Aetna
clinicians and informatics specialists. It will be supervised by
Isaac (Zak) Kohane, M.D., Ph.D., Henderson Professor of Pediatrics
and Health Sciences and Technology at Harvard Medical School (HMS)
and co-director of the HMS Center for Biomedical Informatics, and
Brian Kelly, M.D., head of Informatics and Strategic Alignment at
Aetna.
“If our health care system is going to become a ‘learning’
health care system, we need to better use the enormous amount of
information we derive from health care to develop tools to
understand what is happening today —such as which drugs are not
working as safely as we thought, which therapies have unexpected
benefits, what are the predictors of effective diabetes management
and which genetic tests are likely to usefully guide therapy,” said
Dr. Kohane. “Major advances in research and clinical care can be
made by applying new bioinformatics techniques to large, aggregated
clinical databases. We are excited about the opportunity to
work with Aetna to rapidly develop and deploy algorithms and
applications that can make a real impact on biomedical discovery
and patient care,” he said.
“We are delighted to be working with a thought leader in health
care and bioinformatics like Harvard Medical School on this
initiative. Aetna has been committed to using health care
information technology to improve the quality and affordability of
health care, and through this collaboration we believe we can
together make an even greater impact,” said Dr. Brian Kelly.
Bioinformatics is the application of computer science and
information technology to the field of biology and medicine.
Researchers on the project will benefit from the extensive clinical
resources and expertise available through the HMS Center for
Biomedical Informatics and its affiliated institutions as they
focus on:
- Evaluating the outcomes of various
treatments for specific conditions based on quality and cost;
- Determining factors that predict
adherence to medical and drug treatments for chronic diseases;
- Studying how claims data and clinical
data available through electronic health records can best be used
to predict disease and follow outcomes; and
- Improving the ability to predict
adverse events through the proactive study of claims and clinical
data.
About Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School (HMS) has more than 7,500 full-time
faculty working in 11 academic departments located at the School’s
Boston campus or in one of 47 hospital-based clinical departments
at 17 Harvard-affiliated teaching hospitals and research
institutes. Those affiliates include Beth Israel Deaconess Medical
Center, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Cambridge Health Alliance,
Children’s Hospital Boston, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Forsyth
Institute, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Hebrew SeniorLife, Joslin
Diabetes Center, Judge Baker Children’s Center, Massachusetts Eye
and Ear Infirmary, Massachusetts General Hospital, McLean Hospital,
Mount Auburn Hospital, Schepens Eye Research Institute, Spaulding
Rehabilitation Hospital, and VA Boston Healthcare System.
About Aetna
Aetna is one of the nation's leading diversified health care
benefits companies, serving approximately 36.3 million people with
information and resources to help them make better informed
decisions about their health care. Aetna offers a broad range of
traditional, voluntary and consumer-directed health insurance
products and related services, including medical, pharmacy, dental,
behavioral health, group life and disability plans, and medical
management capabilities and health care management services for
Medicaid plans. Our customers include employer groups, individuals,
college students, part-time and hourly workers, health plans,
governmental units, government-sponsored plans, labor groups and
expatriates. For more information, see www.aetna.com.
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