Data Mining For DOD Health
Contracts naturally come in all sizes, shapes and flavors. Here’s one that’s just plain fascinating.
“U.S. Department of Defense Chooses Phase Forward to Support FDA-Sponsored Drug Safety Initiative.”
That’s the headline of a press release from a drug industry firm called Phase Forward. The contract involves an effort to use powerful data mining software to examine the medical records of some 12 million people, a company spokesman told us.
The stated aim is to improve the safety of prescription drugs through “rapid evaluation of DoD healthcare data on Army active duty personnel, their family members and retirees to determine which potential safety ’signals’ merit a more thorough investigation through an epidemiological study.