Highlander Health Announces Initial Collaborations to Optimize Clinical Research

Philanthropic grants awarded through Highlander Health Institute and Lyda Hill Philanthropies to develop clinician-led learning labs to create and test solutions

Highlander Health, a firm advancing evidence generation and personalized health care for the new era of medical innovation, today unveiled collaborations with Duke-Margolis Institute for Health Policy, Baylor Scott & White Research Institute, and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Co-founded by industry veterans Amy Abernethy, M.D., Ph.D., and Brad Hirsch, M.D., Highlander Health is comprised of Highlander Health Institute, a public interest platform and Highlander Health Partners, an investment arm.

Highlander Health Institute is joining with Lyda Hill Philanthropies to support a portfolio of projects at collaborating institutions. The resultant clinician-led learning labs will create and test solutions, with work transparently conducted and results broadly shared. The Duke-Margolis Institute for Health Policy will extend its ongoing work on evidence generation to advance understanding of the clinical and analytic infrastructure needed to power a robust learning health ecosystem. The results of all projects will inform subsequent areas of focus looking at things such as the generalizability of lessons learned, cost implications, and ability to drive regulatory acceptance for various use cases.

“We are beyond excited to announce our initial collaborations,” said Amy Abernethy, co-founder of Highlander Health. “The grant funding to these world-renowned institutions will aim to simplify clinical trials and innovate the potential of real-world data. We want to understand what approaches work across settings, coalesce stakeholders, and embrace the evolution happening in the market right now.”

OVERVIEW OF PROJECTS

• Data Exploration - Baylor Scott & White Research Institute will conduct an assessment of the ability to use routinely captured secure data to populate clinical trial and registry datasets including how to address issues such as data quality and provenance.
• Research Operations - Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center’s learning lab will look to demonstrate a streamlined approach to clinical research operations across a network of affiliated sites to fully utilize a central investigator model, streamline the launch of studies at sites, and help decrease the burden on clinicians by centralizing aspects of execution.
• Policy Insights - Duke-Margolis Institute for Health Policy will conduct an analysis of relevant issues, policies, and technologies to support the fit-for-purpose data and analytic methods needed to generate much richer evidence to inform clinical care.

“Stronger support for adoption of consistent standards and terminologies can advance the global uptake and impact of real-world data and real-world evidence,” said Mark McClellan, founding director of the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy. “While some progress has been made, this partnership with Highlander Health will help stakeholders move beyond the present state and drive improvements in population health outcomes.”

“Lyda Hill Philanthropies is committed to the belief that 'science is the answer' to many of the world’s pressing challenges,” states Nicole Small, CEO of LH Capital, Inc. and Lyda Hill Philanthropies. “We are proud to partner with Highlander Health, an organization that shares our vision. Advancing health solutions necessitates collaboration and the dissemination of findings to drive meaningful policy and process changes. We eagerly anticipate working alongside Highlander Health to achieve transformative progress in evidence generation.”

Highlander Health will be convening an advisory group of stakeholders across these projects to determine best practices to share research. Learn more at highlanderhealth.com

About Highlander Health

Highlander Health is focused on advancing evidence generation for the new era of medical innovation. Through an investment portfolio and a platform for learning across care settings, Highlander Health is on a mission to modernize clinical research and care — toward flexible approaches, unlocked capacity, and faster and greater patient impact. Learn more and join in our work to move evidence generation forward at highlanderhealth.com.

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