Features and benefits
Scientific expertise
Optum Epidemiology is at the forefront of epidemiologic methodology and practice.
Driven by research objectives, researchers bring scientific rigor and integrity to protocol design, data analytics and research reporting. Such expertise elevates understanding of the safety and efficacy of drugs, devices, biologics and health care delivery.
Research capabilities
Optum Epidemiology regularly provides research and consulting services for clients responding to regulatory authority requests as part of product launch and post-marketing commitment activities.
Optum Epidemiology offers safety-related research, consulting and surveillance
Clinical and pharmacoepidemiology research
- Natural history of disease
- General epidemiological characterizations
- Patient profiles, treatment and utilization patterns, outcomes
- Measures of exposures and effects over time
- Explanation of clinical course of rare diseases
Safety profile and effectiveness evaluations
- Post-approval safety studies/safety surveillance
- Intervention assessment
- Comparative effectiveness assessment
Risk assessment
- Product risk assessment and analysis
- Evaluation of risk management plans/risk evaluation and mitigation strategies
Data assets and products
Our team has deep experience creating evidence from observational data sources. These resources include insurance claims, electronic and paper medical records, patient and provider surveys, and death registries.
With direct access to the data, we have insight into the most appropriate epidemiologic methodologies and interpretation of results.
Our researchers are adept at creating novel linkages that transcend traditional data limitations and enable a broad view of patient care and health.
Unparalleled data assets
Medical claims data (commercial claims, Medicare)
- Captures medical and pharmacy encounters, linkable to lab results, death registries and socioeconomic data.
- Medical record abstraction to confirm diagnoses, drug exposures and other claims information. Used to obtain covariates, and develop and validate algorithms.
Electronic health record (EHR) data
- Structured clinical data
- Enhanced by natural language processing (NLP) of free text electronic clinical notes
- Validation of key terms to identify conditions, diagnoses and exposures that are difficult to capture through traditional data source mining
Novel data linkages
- Patient populations captured within both the claims and EHR data assets
- Additional data sources (for example, patient and provider surveys, registries)
