Regions
MAIN/REGIONS
regions/
Regions
  1. Americas
  2. Asia & Oceania
  3. Europe
  4. Middle East & Africa
  1. Solutions
  2. Products
  3. Insights
  4. About
  5. Careers
  6. Contact Us
MAIN/search
MAIN/Solutions
Solutions/
SOLUTIONS
  • Research & Development
  • Real World Evidence
  • Commercialization
  • Safety & Regulatory Compliance
  • Technologies
LIFE SCIENCE SEGMENTS
HEALTHCARE SEGMENTS
THERAPEUTIC AREAS

Impacting People's Lives

"We strive to help improve outcomes and create a healthier, more sustainable world for people everywhere.

LEARN MORE
Harness the power to transform clinical development

Reimagine clinical development by intelligently connecting data, technology, and analytics to optimize your trials. The result? Faster decision making and reduced risk so you can deliver life-changing therapies faster.

Research & Development Overview
Research & Development Quick Links
Real World Evidence. Real Confidence. Real Results.

Generate and disseminate evidence that answers crucial clinical, regulatory and commercial questions, enabling you to drive smarter decisions and meet your stakeholder needs with confidence.

REAL WORLD EVIDENCE OVERVIEW
Real World Evidence Quick Links
See markets more clearly. Opportunities more often.

Elevate commercial models with precision and speed using AI-driven analytics and technology that illuminate hidden insights in data.

COMMERCIALIZATION OVERVIEW
Commercialization Quick Links
Service driven. Tech-enabled. Integrated compliance.

Orchestrate your success across the complete compliance lifecycle with best-in-class services and solutions for safety, regulatory, quality and medical information.

COMPLIANCE OVERVIEW
Safety & Regulatory Compliance Quick Links
Intelligence that transforms life sciences end-to-end.

When your destination is a healthier world, making intelligent connections between data, technology, and services is your roadmap.

TECHNOLOGIES OVERVIEW
Technology Quick Links
MAIN/Products
Products/
CLINICAL PRODUCTS
COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS
COMPLIANCE, SAFETY, REG PRODUCTS
REAL WORLD PRODUCTS

CASE STUDY

"Data in a Day

LEARN MORE
MAIN/Insights
Insights/
BLOGS, WHITE PAPERS & CASE STUDIES

Explore our library of insights, thought leadership, and the latest topics & trends in healthcare.

DISCOVER INSIGHTS
THE IQVIA INSTITUTE

An in-depth exploration of the global healthcare ecosystem with timely research, insightful analysis, and scientific expertise.

SEE LATEST REPORTS

INSTITUTE REPORT

"Global Trends in R&D 2024

READ MORE

EMEA Insights

"IQVIA thought leadership with a focus on EMEA.

Learn more

WHITE PAPER

"DCTs Deliver Big ROI

LEARN MORE

WHITE PAPER

"Capturing value at scale: The $4 billion RWE imperative

LEARN MORE
MAIN/About
About/
FEATURED INNOVATIONS
  • IQVIA Connected Intelligence™
  • IQVIA Healthcare-grade AI™
  • Human Data Science Cloud
  • IQVIA Innovation Hub
  • Decentralized Trials
  • Patient Experience powered by Apple
WHO WE ARE
NEWS & RESOURCES

INVESTOR RELATIONS

"Visit our investor relations site for more information.

LEARN MORE
Unlock your potential to drive healthcare forward

By making intelligent connections between your needs, our capabilities, and the healthcare ecosystem, we can help you be more agile, accelerate results, and improve patient outcomes.

LEARN MORE
IQVIA AI is Healthcare-grade AI

Building on a rich history of developing AI for healthcare, IQVIA AI connects the right data, technology, and expertise to address the unique needs of healthcare. It's what we call Healthcare-grade AI.

LEARN MORE
Your healthcare data deserves more than just a cloud.

The IQVIA Human Data Science Cloud is our unique capability designed to enable healthcare-grade analytics, tools, and data management solutions to deliver fit-for-purpose global data at scale.

LEARN MORE
Innovations make an impact when bold ideas meet powerful partnerships

The IQVIA Innovation Hub connects start-ups with the extensive IQVIA network of assets, resources, clients, and partners. Together, we can help lead the future of healthcare with the extensive IQVIA network of assets, resources, clients, and partners.

LEARN MORE
Proven, faster DCT solutions

IQVIA Decentralized Trials deliver purpose-built clinical services and technologies that engage the right patients wherever they are. Our hybrid and fully virtual solutions have been used more than any others.

LEARN MORE
IQVIA Patient Experience Solutions powered by Apple

Empowering patients to personalize their healthcare and connecting them to caregivers has the potential to change the care delivery paradigm. IQVIA and Apple are collaborating to bring this exciting future of personalized care directly to devices patients already have and use.

LEARN MORE
MAIN/Careers
Careers/
WORKING AT IQVIA

Our mission is to accelerate innovation for a healthier world. Together, we can solve customer challenges and improve patient lives.

LEARN MORE
LIFE AT IQVIA

Careers, culture and everything in between. Find out what’s going on right here, right now.

LEARN MORE

WE’RE HIRING

"Improving human health requires brave thinkers who are willing to explore new ideas and build on successes. Unleash your potential with us.

SEARCH JOBS
MAIN/Contact Us
Contact Us/
Blog
​Solving public health challenges with real-world data
Alison Bourke
Jul 11, 2017
  • Blogs
  • Solving public health challenges with realworld data

Real-world data (RWD) has for some time been a goldmine for medical research. Now, by integrating RWD with clinical and biological information, and taking advantage of data infrastructure and advanced analytics, it is possible to gain new insights into the safety, efficacy and quality of care. These data aren't just valuable to the pharmaceutical industry; academic and public policy experts are increasingly using Real World Evidence (RWE) to address public health issues, and to directly inform public policies and treatment guidelines with far-reaching impact.

Last month, the IQVIA Institute and IQVIA Real World Insights held the second annual IQVIA Research Forum to showcase some of the groundbreaking studies that have been undertaken using extensive healthcare databases, data expertise and data analytic capabilities to provide policy-setters and decision-makers with new information on healthcare dynamics.

The day-long forum featured presentations from leading academics, industry professionals and government experts speaking on a range of topics, including the impact of RWE on drug pricing and solving public health challenges, and how RWD is used in health economics, and to improve the safety and effectiveness of drugs in the market. Many of the presentations included examples of studies that are changing medical care and treatment guidelines.

Mortality among psoriasis patients

A compelling presentation came from Dr. Megan Noe at the University of Pennsylvania, who conducted research into the links between psoriasis severity and risk of mortality. Physicians know psoriasis is associated with higher rates of other comorbidities, including hypertension, diabetes obesity, and cardiovascular disease. Dr. Noe’s study set-out to determine whether mortality rate is stratified by disease severity.

Through a prospective, population-based cohort study of psoriasis patients using data gleaned from 11 million electronic medical records, she found patients with severe psoriasis had much higher mortality rates than those with mild or moderate conditions—comparable to mortality rates for smokers and diabetics. These insights will be used to help educate physicians and patients about the risks these patients face.

Protecting children from dangerous drugs

Dr. Daniel Budnitz, from the Center for Disease Control (CDC), shared results of his study to quantify the frequency of adverse drug events for different medication types. Using data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance Systems (NEISS), Budnitz was able to estimate the rate of adverse drug events resulting in an emergency room visit across a variety of medication types, and then use the data to make recommendations for change. In one example, data showing an unusual level of unsupervised ingestion among children for a specific drug led to a simple packaging change, which ultimately reduced the frequency of emergency room visits for child ingestions of this drug by 65 percent.

Exploring medication safety and pregnancy

Kimberley Woodcroft, associate scientist at Henry Ford Health System, shared details of her research project exploring how to fill knowledge gaps in medication safety during pregnancy. In the study, Woodcroft’s team developed a claims-based pregnancy algorithm that included exposure to medications and outcomes of pregnancy, which they are subsequently working to validate with QuintilesIMS data assets. Because pregnant women are typically excluded from clinical trials, many questions as to medication safety could potentially be gleaned from administrative claims databases. This research could be an important step in determining medication safety for pregnant women going forward.

Pharmacy closures negatively impact statin adherence

Dima Qato from the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Pharmacy shared her research into the impact of pharmacy closures and medication adherence among older adults. There have been thousands of pharmacy closures in the U.S. in recent years, which affects access to medication. To prove the impact of these closures on adherence, Qato reviewed IMS LifeLink (LRx) patient-level data regarding statin-use among patients 50 years and older pre and post-pharmacy closure in 12-month time periods. The results show that pharmacy closures have an immediate and persistent effect on statin adherence, and that patients who filled their prescriptions at independent pharmacies experience a greater decline than those filling at chains.

She concluded that efforts to improve adherence should consider the role of pharmacy closures, and suggested that regulations to prevent closures, and/or ensure patients have adequate access to new pharmacies post-closure could mitigate this adherence risk. She is now considering a study into the impact of pharmacy closures on ER visits and hospitalizations.

These are just a few of the many innovative uses of IQVIA data to inform public healthcare and policy making. This forum underscores how important these studies are to enhancing our understanding of disease management, and to accelerate access to safer and more effective treatment paths.

We hope events like the Research Forum will encourage exploratory research using RWD, and we look forward to working with researchers across industry, academia and government to facilitate and promote this exciting work.

Related solutions

Industry Segments

See how we partner with organizations across the healthcare ecosystem, from emerging biotechnology and large pharmaceutical, to medical technology, consumer health, and more, to drive human health forward.

Contact Us