Optum, Mayo partner on collaborative R&D lab
Optum and Mayo Clinic have jointly launched Optum Labs, an open, collaborative research and development facility with the goal of improving patient care.
Based in Cambridge, Mass., the new facility aims to provide an environment where the healthcare industry can come together to combine information and ideas that benefit patients today while driving long-term improvements in the delivery and quality of care, according to a statement.
Optum and Mayo Clinic will make their information assets, technologies, knowledge tools and scientific expertise available to organizations interested in pursuing practical solutions to patient care challenges. Mayo Clinic’s clinical expertise will guide Optum Labs’ research agenda and allow the ability to apply research results and insights directly to the patient care environment. The combination of Mayo Clinic’s clinical insights with Optum’s healthcare claims information will help clinicians better understand all aspects of the patient care experience and refine approaches to care that consistently help patients achieve the best outcomes.
Other Optum Labs participants will include academic institutions, life sciences companies, commercial and government payers, and other care providers.
“Our strategic research alliance with Optum Labs will leverage what we believe to be the largest combined source of clinical and claims information, providing a more comprehensive picture of patients’ diagnoses, progression of diseases, comparative treatments and outcomes,” said John Noseworthy, MD, president and CEO of Mayo Clinic.
With the combined insights of Optum, Mayo and other partners, Optum Labs plans to support patient care improvements, such as finding optimal treatments for conditions in a given setting; understanding variations in care; and examining the effectiveness of patient care programs and approaches.
Examples of the work of Optum Labs scientists include developing applications that measure the relative cost effectiveness of medical devices, analyzing how to improve the diagnosis of Hepatitis C and increasing the understanding of health disparities among the elderly.
“By combining the Mayo Clinic's robust clinical insight with Optum’s extensive claims information, we will be able to better understand healthcare delivery over time, compare the effectiveness of care we provide today, and analyze the total cost of care for specific procedures or diseases,” said Veronique Roger, MD, MPH, director of the Mayo Clinic Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery. “This will help provide better care to patients, and help the healthcare industry better define value through outcomes instead of volumes.”