UMass Chan Medical School researchers are partnering with Worcester officials and local health care organizations to share data for patients with opioid use disorders, an effort that organizers say will transform public health and reduce health disparities.
The initiative, known as the Worcester Integrated Health Data Exchange, is designed to facilitate a comprehensive understanding of health inequities, trends, risk factors and outcomes, which will significantly enhance the community’s health management capabilities, according to organizers.
Matilde “Mattie” Castiel, MD, associate professor of medicine and Worcester’s commissioner of health and human services, spearheads the project, which is expected to launch in December with UMass Memorial Health and Family Health Center of Worcester. The city’s other health care organizations are expected to join after the initial rollout.
“We know from state data for opioids that the highest numbers are for communities of color,” said Dr. Castiel. “Having our local Worcester data could help bring collaboration and resources to affected neighborhoods.”
This would be the first data-sharing project in the state to be used for community-based health intervention since the COVID-19 pandemic, she said.
The platform for sharing deidentified patient data, which will be converted into a common data model known as Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership, was developed by Adrian H. Zai, MD, PhD, MPH, associate professor of population & quantitative health sciences and chief research informatics officer. Dr. Zai is also director of the Research Informatics Core, a joint venture between the UMass Center for Clinical & Translational Sciences and the Department of Population & Quantitative Health Sciences. The Research Informatics Core is supported by a grant from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences.
Zai highlighted why sharing electronic data across health access points in the city could improve community health. “You would know whether your patient ends up in the ER in different places, or if a patient is getting opioid medications in multiple places,” he said. “And with demographic data, things like that would be quite revealing and data that we’ve never had before. Hopefully collecting data over time could help us understand the outcomes of certain interventions from a city perspective and where we should tackle challenges.”
Once the model of data sharing around a particular health problem such as opioid use is developed, it could be applied to other diseases such as diabetes or hypertension, he said.
“It’s like the first step of Framingham [Heart Study] 2.0,” said Zai.
Medical school students would also benefit from having access to the database for research, with IRB approval, Castiel said. “And it’s all local so our community entities are the ones who will benefit from this process.”
Organizers believe this initiative will be a model for policymakers as well.
This effort, which is supported by the National Institutes of Health and UMass Memorial Health, was born out of the collaborative model of care, outreach and data-sharing that took place during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic and formation of the COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force. With data in hand, the task force mobilized the community to target mobile testing and vaccination clinics to neighborhoods most in need.
With the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency, the task force transitioned to the Worcester Health Equity Task Force, which is now co-chaired by Castiel and Victoria McCandless, chief of staff for UMass Memorial Health.
“Our goal with this initiative is to build upon the great work and collaborative spirit that took place during the pandemic to bring all of our health care organizations together once again to share data, information and resources to systematically address the health care disparities that exist in Central Massachusetts,” said McCandless.
