NJ Launches Statewide Population Health Data Project

Rutgers Center for State Health Policy has launched the New Jersey Integrated Population Health Data (iPHD) Project to help address some of the state’s major population health issues, such as the opioid crisis, COVID-19, and maternal and infant health.

The project launched last week at a virtual research consortium, where researchers and policy experts highlighted how iPHD aims to inform health policymaking in the state by encouraging administrative data use in research. They also said it will help promote a better understanding of the factors affecting population health and government program efficiency.

“One of the chief goals of the iPHD is to create a community of researchers in New Jersey dedicated to addressing questions about the most pressing health needs of New Jersey residents,” said Joel Cantor, director of the Center for State Health Policy and ex-officio member of the iPHD Governing Board, in the press release. “And the consortium is an important first step toward engaging this community and helping it grow.”

Researchers participating in the iPHD Project will be able to request access to various types of health data, including information about births, mortality, hospital billing records, and COVID-19 surveillance, to study health issues affecting New Jersey’s population. The project’s current research priorities are the opioid epidemic, maternal and infant health, social determinants of health (SDOH), and COVID-19 and other public health emergencies.

The iPHD project was created via state legislation in 2016, and in the six years that followed, the New Jersey Department of Health led implementation planning and collaboration among partners from academia and state agencies, resulting in the creation of the research consortium.

The project is designed to establish a process for integrating health and other data from publicly supported population health programs to study health issues that affect New Jersey communities as a whole. By linking these data, the project helps researchers identify population health trends and other SDOH.

“The work of the iPHD project to focus on priority issues in population health will help identify insights and perspectives from public health initiatives that will ultimately help improve outcomes,” stated Judith Persichilli, commissioner of the Department of Health, in the press release.

The iPHD Project launch is one of multiple recent state health initiatives.

Last week, the University of Maryland Medicine, the joint enterprise of the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM), the University of Maryland Medical Center, and the University of Maryland Medical System, announced the launch of the My Healthy Maryland Precision Medicine Research initiative, which will gather diverse data from state residents to study how genes and lifestyle factors impact an individual's health.

The initiative will focus on underserved populations who often experience health disparities that can negatively impact care outcomes and overall lifespan. The project aims to collect health and genomic data from at least 250,000 Maryland residents over the next 10 years, with a particular focus on reflecting the diversity of the state's population.