Source: PR Newswire
SAN FRANCISCO, April 30, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — Datavant, the leader in helping healthcare organizations safely link their data to improve medical research and patient care, today announced that it has acquired Universal Patient Key (UPK), the leading provider of HIPAA-compliant de-identification services for healthcare data.
UPK has created a suite of software products that de-identify structured and unstructured health data through HIPAA-compliant methodologies. By using UPK’s industry-leading software and services, healthcare stakeholders can securely share patient-level healthcare data while minimizing the risk of unauthorized access and patient re-identification. These services enable the shared use of longitudinal, real-world evidence to further medical research, improve health outcomes, and reduce the cost of delivering care, while at the same time protecting the anonymity of individual patients.
Over 70 healthcare providers, insurers, pharmacies, universities, analytics providers, government agencies, and other institutions currently utilize UPK’s de-identification solutions. UPK’s clients include Allscripts, McKesson, Decision Resources Group, Optum, IBM Watson (Truven Health), Komodo Health, Prognos, Precision Health, and dozens of other companies. These institutions join 250 other data sources linked by Datavant.
“Datavant’s vision is to be a trusted steward of healthcare data that services the entire healthcare ecosystem,” said Travis May, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Datavant. “Healthcare data is too siloed today, which holds back the development of new medicines and the personalized treatment of patients. We are excited to build upon the foundation laid by UPK to help healthcare organizations safely link their data to improve medical research and patient care.”
“UPK’s two-step hash-token and site key process are elegant tools for facilitating HIPAA-compliant data transfer,” said Eric Perakslis, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer of Datavant and former Chief Information Officer at the U.S. Food & Drug Administration. “We look forward to working with partner institutions to create a data ecosystem that improves patient care and advances medical research without compromising protected health information.”
“We founded UPK with the vision of creating a better way for the healthcare industry to de-identify and link data,” said Shahir Kassam-Adams, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of UPK. “After meeting Travis, Eric, and the Datavant team and understanding their vision, goals, and the breadth of their partnerships, we knew we had found the right company to take the UPK offering to the next level faster.”
Shahir Kassam-Adams will join Datavant as Head of Strategy and Jason LaBonte, PhD, formerly Chief Product Officer at UPK, will join Datavant as Head of Product. Mr. Kassam-Adams previously served as Chief Strategy Officer at both Decision Resources Group and Thomson Healthcare. Mr. LaBonte previously served as Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President of Brand Development at Decision Resources Group. Joe Austin, Co-Founder and Chairman of UPK, will serve as an advisor to Datavant.