The life sciences industry is at a turning point. Ninety-seven percent of data generated by the healthcare sector goes unused. Despite the billions of dollars invested annually in generating, acquiring, and analyzing data—from clinical trials and real-world evidence to patient-generated data—many organizations remain constrained by one persistent challenge: data silos.
Data silos fragment the patient journey, preventing organizations from fully unlocking the value of their data and making informed, connected decisions.
Data silos in the life sciences industry stem from various factors, including fragmented data collection systems, proprietary data formats, and regulatory constraints. Many pharmaceutical and healthcare organizations collect vast amounts of data, but these datasets remain isolated due to differences in data structures, governance policies, and a lack of interoperability.
For example, a life sciences organization may collect multiple datasets that exist in stand alone silos, including:
By adopting a secure framework for integrating disparate healthcare datasets while preserving patient privacy—known as a Linkable Data Infrastructure (LDI)—life sciences organizations can break down data silos and gain a more complete view of the healthcare landscape.
LDIs incorporate a privacy-preserving method to bring together proprietary, real-world, consumer ID, and other patient-level data.
Utilizing advanced linkage technology and privacy-enhancing solutions, LDIs provide life sciences companies with the capability to connect and analyze data across sources in a privacy-preserving manner, unlocking richer insights and driving more effective decision-making.
An LDI serves as the foundation for a more interconnected and insightful data ecosystem. Through the use of tokenization, which replaces personally identifiable information with unique, irreversible tokens, LDIs enable the secure linkage of datasets such as electronic health records (EHR), claims data, lab results, and specialty pharmacy data. This approach prioritizes patient privacy while facilitating a unified, patient-centric view of health data.
By deploying an LDI, life sciences organizations can overcome data silos and unlock valuable capabilities, including:
Prioritizing patient privacy while linking healthcare datasets requires a combination of secure data-handling techniques and robust privacy solutions. Two key components that enable privacy-centric data linkage are tokenization and privacy certification:
By combining tokenization and privacy certification, life sciences organizations can confidently link health data without compromising patient privacy. This approach enables a privacy-centric exchange of de-identified patient records, supporting more effective research, real-world evidence generation, and targeted healthcare interventions.
The return on investment for organizations adopting an LDI extends across the therapeutic lifecycle, from early-stage research to post-market surveillance. Based on our actual use cases with top 20 life sciences organizations and industry projections, the power of connected data can drive:
*ROI figures based on actual use cases seen in Datavant book of business with 18 of Top 20 Pharma and industry projections.
Data linkage has revolutionized operations for many life sciences organizations we work with. Below are examples of Datavant life sciences customers, showcasing the impact:
Establishing an LDI is less about constructing something entirely new and more about strategically uniting existing resources and expertise. In our work with top pharmaceutical companies, the most successful approach prioritizes integration and efficiency over reinvention.
To establish an effective LDI, organizations must prioritize:
As the healthcare industry accounts for nearly 30 percent of the world’s total data volume, the demand for connected, actionable data is growing.
Organizations that embrace an LDI will not only streamline their data management strategies, but also gain a competitive advantage by delivering greater value for stakeholders — and better outcomes for patients.
A partnership with an industry expert like Datavant to design and scale LDIs ensures organizations maximize efficiency, proactively mitigate risks, and achieve sustainable differentiation.
Go deeper on how to build a linkable data infrastructure in our white paper.
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Our experts partner with life sciences organizations to compliantly connect disparate datasets and unlock insights that:
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