AboutCapabilitiesData & Analytics Expertise

Data & Analytics Expertise

For more than half a century, our research has been distinguished by our extraordinary data resources and the expertise to analyze that data for meaningful patterns.

Through our relationship with Kaiser Permanente, we have access to the largest non-governmental electronic health record system in the world. This allows us to follow our study populations for years—even decades—and develop new tools for predicting which patients will benefit the most from health care interventions.

And through standardized coding systems, we’ve developed a common terminology for sharing data across institutions.

Learn more below about our Research Data & Analysis Center, Research Data Warehouse, and Virtual Data Warehouse, as well as the work being done by our Predictive Analytics Unit.

Research Data & Analysis Center

CHR investigators are fully supported by our Research Data & Analysis Center (RDAC), which is organized into five functions:

Biostatisticians
consult on analytic methods, and develop and refine analysis plans.
Data warehousing staff
provide mechanisms and expertise to efficiently access large longitudinal and other, varied datasets.
Network consulting staff
facilitate research network partnerships involving electronic medical record data.
Primary data collection staff
develop surveys, design data collection systems, perform medical record abstraction, and provide data entry services.
Research analysts
collect, clean, and analyze data.

Research Data Warehouse

The CHR-Northwest Research Data Warehouse (RDW) is a store of research-ready data accumulated from a wide range of sources including electronic medical records, insurance claims, state records, and legacy data systems. The RDW incorporates 55 tables which have been used and validated by many research projects and internal data monitoring processes. Research Data Warehouse tables include data related to health care utilization, demographics, lab, treatments administered via infusion, enrollment, death, pharmacy, tumor registry, oncology, pathology, and more.

Virtual Data Warehouse

The Virtual Data Warehouse (VDW) is a set of standardized data and methods developed as part of key multi-site research collaborations: the Health Care Services Research Network and the Cancer Research Network. The VDW enables researchers to produce comparable data across these collaborating sites for proposing and conducting research.

Predictive Analytics

The science of predictive analytics—using available data to predict the likelihood of future events—is helping us transform care delivery at Kaiser Permanente and beyond. By combining various patient characteristics into algorithms, we create statistically grounded prediction tools that support clinicians in making evidence-based decisions about the kind of care their patients are likely to need. Led by Eric Johnson, PhD, and David Smith, RPh, PhD, our Predictive Analytics Unit has developed tools for predicting such costly outcomes as end-stage renal failure, emergency room utilization, and Clostridium difficile infection.