The governing board of the New Jersey Integrated Population Health Data (iPHD) project approved pilot funding and the release of data for four research proposals in its inaugural application cycle. The project builds on the working relationship between Rutgers University and state agencies to further population health research by linking administrative data.
Each project addresses at least one of the iPHD’s four research priorities, which represent some of the state’s top health issues: addressing the opioid epidemic, improving maternal and infant health, addressing the social determinants of health and supporting the response to COVID-19 and other public health emergencies. The iPHD pilot awards are funded by the state Department of Health.
Enacted through legislation in 2016, the iPHD project is operated by the Center for State Health Policy at the Rutgers Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research and seeks to inform policy making and strengthen population health in New Jersey. The iPHD establishes a process for integrating health and other data from publicly supported programs for population health research, allowing researchers to study issues of great importance to communities around the state.
“The approval of these research projects is an important milestone for the iPHD,” said Joel Cantor, Distinguished Professor, director of the CSHP and ex-officio member of the iPHD Governing Board. “Getting data out the door and into the hands of researchers represents the next step toward fulfilling our mission of facilitating research that has a high likelihood of leading to better health and well-being of New Jersey residents.”
The state Department of Health worked closely with Rutgers to support the design and implementation of the iPHD.