Regenstrief Institute Vice President for Data and Analytics Shaun Grannis, M.D., M.S., shared an international stage with a physician from Israel in a wide-ranging pandemic discussion that included work with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Dr. Grannis provided perspective on vaccine data developments to the COVID-19 Diagnostics Evidence Accelerator. The Accelerator is a multi-stakeholder, collaborative effort to leverage real-world data in the effort to fight the pandemic organized by the Reagan-Udall Foundation for the FDA in collaboration with Friends of Cancer Research.
Regenstrief is one of 10 sites contributing vaccine data to the CDC’s initiative to evaluate the effectiveness of the vaccine. The data come from the state vaccine registry, test data and the Indiana Network for Patient Care, which is managed by Indiana Health Information Exchange. The data is used to track “breakthrough cases,” or people who have gotten the virus after being vaccinated, as well as their journey through the healthcare system, including hospitalizations and intensive care admissions.
Dr. Grannis said the data coming from Indiana is very complete due to the state’s interconnected health data infrastructure, which has been a benefit since the beginning of the pandemic. Currently, Indiana has a .04 percent breakthrough rate.
He also discussed Indiana’s ongoing efforts to track the spread of the virus, including the Regenstrief COVID-19 Dashboard, which complements data provided by the Indiana Department of Health.
Also presenting at the Diagnostics Evidence Accelerator meeting was Ran Balicer, M.D., MPH, from Israel, who is the chair of Israel’s National Experts Advisory Team on COVID Response. He discussed Israel’s experience with the vaccine and the real-world evidence that’s been generated because all of the country’s health data goes into a central warehouse.
About Shaun Grannis, M.D., M.S.
In addition to his role as the vice president of data and analytics at Regenstrief Institute, Shaun Grannis, M.D., M.S., is the Regenstrief Chair in Medical Informatics and a professor of family medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine.