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. 2025 Feb;34(2):e70110.
doi: 10.1002/pds.70110.

The Healthcare Integrated Research Database (HIRD) as a Real-World Data Source for Pharmacoepidemiologic Research

John J Barron  1 , Vincent J Willey  1 , Brett T Doherty  1 , Ozgur Tunceli  1 , Craig R Waltz  1 , Michael Grabner  1 , Daniel C Beachler  1 , Stephan Lanes  1 , Mark J Cziraky  1
Affiliations

The Healthcare Integrated Research Database (HIRD) as a Real-World Data Source for Pharmacoepidemiologic Research

John J Barron et al. Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf. 2025 Feb.

Abstract

Background and methods: The Healthcare Integrated Research Database (HIRD) is a large, comprehensive real-world data (RWD) source for health-related research. Demographic and healthcare-related characteristics of individuals are sourced from routinely updated RWD. The HIRD includes health insurance claims and other health-related information for individuals enrolled in health insurance plans offered or managed by Elevance Health and has been utilized for research for almost two decades. Individuals in the HIRD reside throughout the United States. Data in the HIRD have been available since January 2006, and are updated monthly.

Results: As of July 2024, the researchable population of the HIRD included over 91 million individuals with medical benefits, and over 24 million individuals were actively enrolled. The median age of individuals in the HIRD is 36 years (interquartile range [IQR]: 22, 54), and 50% of individuals in the HIRD are female. The median duration of continuous enrollment in the HIRD is 2.0 years (IQR: 0.8, 4.7). For those actively enrolled, the median duration of continuous enrollment is 3.8 years (IQR: 1.7, 8.3). Other important characteristics of the HIRD include the ability to trace data back to their source, support both deterministic and probabilistic linkage with external data sources, and link family members within health plans.

Conclusions: The HIRD has been a trusted resource to generate real-world evidence for a variety of health-related research, including regulatory-required safety studies, comparative effectiveness studies, and health economics and outcomes research.

Keywords: Carelon; EHR; Elevance Health; HIRD; Healthcare Integrated Research Database; SDoH; claims; database; real‐world data; real‐world evidence.

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Conflict of interest statement

All authors were employees of Carelon Research at the time the manuscript was prepared. All authors are shareholders of Elevance Health. Brett Doherty is currently an employee of Daiichi Sankyo Inc., Basking Ridge, NJ.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
An overview of the handling of data and data types contained in the HIRD.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Timeliness of medical and pharmacy claim adjudication. Based upon 2024 analysis of time to final adjudication from claimservice date.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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