Heath Research and Analysis - HRA
A Pioneer in Using Real-World Data in Support of Healthcare Analytics

Healthcare data analytics has become more streamlined in recent years as it helps to quickly assess research hypotheses, evaluate patient care, and measure health outcomes. That said, the availability of real-world data plays a crucial role in healthcare analytics, promptly providing useful information that can shape advantageous health outcomes. However, real-world data is scattered across disparate data sources such as electronic health records, medical claims, pharmacy transactions, and administrative registries. Such sources are often siloed, limiting the interoperability of information that can lead to data inaccuracies and untimely actionable insights.

Addressing this alarming quandary is a major need of the hour, and a strategic leader in healthcare research—Health Research and Analysis (HRA)—is tackling this challenge by synchronizing disparate data to uncover critical healthcare patterns and public health trends. Pioneering healthcare research studies and program evaluations, HRA empowers healthcare professionals, programs, and researchers alike to identify data-driven insights that inform policy and practice.

“We acquire and synchronize disparate real-world data for healthcare research purposes, cutting down the time and cost researchers traditionally spend in designing, approving, and implementing data collection initiatives,” says Samar DeBakey, president, HRA.

Founded in 2004, with immense experience in the healthcare industry, HRA specializes in bridging the gap between siloed healthcare datasets by first consolidating them and then analyzing full dataset to provide a complete picture of health services trends and cost using epidemiologic methods. The firm explores relevant hypotheses for research, evaluates medical programs, and provides recommendations for policy and program development and implementation.

Through its expeditious data analytics prowess, HRA identifies untoward trends, that if detected early, can be mitigated in order to achieve better health outcomes. Furthermore, using real-world data analytics, HRA isolates trends that may suggest Fraud, Waste and Abuse (FWA), the exploration of which will serve to ensure healthcare program integrity.

The unparalleled professional team of researchers, physicians, biostatisticians, and best-in-class trained data scientists contribute to generating contextual, impactful, and relevant healthcare data analytic solutions for HRA’s clients. Supplemented by its network of technical experts, HRA renders a one-stop solution in support of epidemiological studies, program evaluations, health services research, risk factor elucidation, and cost estimation related to health and well-being.

Employing a systematic approach to healthcare analytics research, HRA assisted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) by conducting health services research for 9/11 responders and survivors. It synchronized crucial information that are routinely collected through healthcare delivery with top-down and bottom-up approaches where the firm researched and gained deep insights about healthcare spend, and treatment trends while identifying potential FWA occurrences for further pursual.

Since its founding, HRA has partnered with the Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration to develop methodologies that leveraged real-world healthcare data to explore the health outcomes of exposure to environmental hazards among veterans of the 1991 Gulf and of Operations Iraqi Freedom, Enduring Freedom and New Dawn. HRA acquired abundant knowledge about war-effects on veterans from its health analytics research on the consequences of war. The research and datasets elucidated the associations between deployment stressors and mental health. In addition, the firm’s research explored associations between environmental exposures such as burn pits and high levels of particulate matter and physical health to include chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, cardiovascular diseases and cancers. HRA, a healthcare analytics firm has published manuscripts resulting from its methodology of consolidating and refining disconnected datasets and then utilizing them for research.

HRA provides technical assistance for optimized data acquisition and standardization efforts. It designs and implements health services research studies to evaluate the utilization, cost, and performance of healthcare programs. The firm leverages existing healthcare program data to evaluate the outcomes of and gaps in the process of care, resulting in real time data-driven quality improvements. While HRA’s subject matter expertise and capabilities are expansive, data-driven solutions and insights are the common thread across its work. Its dedication to providing effective healthcare and analytic solutions is bolstered by its increased data quality, integration, and standardization initiatives.