July 30, 2020 – Premier Inc. (Charlotte, NC) announced a data licensing agreement with the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The agreement grants researchers in the Critical Care Medicine Department at the NIH Clinical Center access to the Premier Healthcare Database (PHD) to conduct research on the impact of COVID-19 on patients across the U.S.
Researchers at the NIH Clinical Center – the largest research hospital in America – are will leverage the database’s discharge and microbiology data to explore the demographic, clinical characteristics, secondary infections and treatment patterns among COVID-19 patients from more than 800 hospitals across the country, with the goal of better understanding the reasons behind variations in outcome.
The partnership is not expected to materially impact fiscal year 2021 financial results.
The Premier Hospital Database comprises data from more than 1 billion patient encounters (about one in five of all inpatient discharges in the U.S.).
Premier says that all patient-related data in the database is de-identified and HIPAA-compliant from both the inpatient and hospital-based outpatient settings, including demographic and disease state, and information on billed services, including medications, laboratory tests performed, diagnostics and therapeutic services. Information on hospital characteristics, including geographic location, bed size and teaching status, is also included.
Premier’s research division, Premier Applied Sciences, recently published a white paper detailing the attributes and capabilities of the PHD as it relates to COVID-19 data.