Northwestern Institute for Public Health and Medicine announces the creation of the Center for Health Information Partnerships (CHIP), led by Dr. Abel Kho, general internist and biomedical informaticist. In recent years, health information technology manifested in electronic health records (EHRs) has achieved ubiquity in the United States, yet most health care entities still are not using data to their greatest benefit due to lack of skills, training, and perspective. Moreover, aggregating health information across institutions and disciplines can dramatically multiply the potential insights into factors affecting individual and population health. Imagine insights into the interplay between environment and genetics and disease driven by the aggregation of electronic health data, publicly available datasets, and university biobank data. CHIP brings electronic health data, investigators, and populations together to answer pressing health care and public health questions.
Dr. Kho and his colleagues had already founded the Chicago Area Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Network (CAPriCORN). This Chicago-based network, funded by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), brings together 11 clinical data-contributing institutions that will enable high throughput, patient-centered comparative effectiveness research. It is one of eleven Clinical Data Research Networks (CDRNs) that PCORI has funded nationally.
The most recent accomplishment of CHIP is the funding of a $15 million grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to establish a new multidisciplinary consortium focused on clinical care quality improvement and the prevention of strokes and heart attacks. The consortium, known as Healthy Hearts in the Heartland, will assist 300 independent clinics and healthcare centers in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin in implementing projects to improve cardiovascular health in the population.
See more at: http://www.feinberg.northwestern.edu/sites/ipham/centers/health-information-partnerships.html