University of California Health

The Center for Data-driven Insights and Innovation (CDI2), established in January 2018, is a cornerstone of the collaborative approach that the University of California has taken to build the pre-eminent data-driven learning healthcare system committed to improving the human condition.

CDI2 oversees the UCH Data Warehouse (UCHDW), a unique system-level data asset created to enhance operational improvements, promote quality patient care, and enable the next generation of clinical research. Using electronic health records (EHR) from the six academic health centers—UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC Los Angeles, UC Riverside, UC San Diego, and UC San Francisco—this asset also includes claims data from the UC self-funded health plans, as well as from external sources including Vizient and the California Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI), formerly the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD).

The UCHDW currently contains data on 8.7 million patients seen at a UC facility since 2012. These patients received care in approximately 378 million encounters. In those encounters, UCH conducted over 1 billion procedures, ordered or prescribed more than 1.3 billion medications, made more than 5.2 billion vital signs and test result measurements, including 35,000 sequenced cancer genomes, and assigned more than 1.1 billion diagnosis codes. Over 800,000 of these patients receive primary care through UCH.

CDI2 leverages the UCHDW to support a broad range of systemwide efforts. These include enabling operational improvements, supporting systemwide research efforts, and providing critical reporting on the impact of the SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 (COVID-19) pandemic. Throughout all of its efforts, CDI2 prioritizes effective cybersecurity risk management and ethical, equitable, and responsible use of patient data. CDI2 is advised by an Oversight Board, chaired by Tom Andriola, Vice Chancellor of Information, Technology, and Data at UC Irvine.

The following are a few of our current initiatives:

Value Based Metrics. As part of the Medicaid Managed Care Quality Incentive Program (QIP), CDI2 shares code and knowledge with local analytics teams across UCH to facilitate obtaining approximately $250 million in incentive payments since program inception. In this current performance year, CDI2 is creating new measures and building updates to allow local teams to further improve metrics.

Population Health Initiatives. CDI2 has partnered with UC Population Health (PH) and the UC Cancer Consortium to develop a registry for over 105,000 patients with cancer, including custom dashboards and analytics to drive quality in care and inform strategy. CDI2 also collaborates with PH in support of health equity, using statistical process control charts to identify disparities in HbA1c control among patients with diabetes systemwide. UCH sites are now working to develop an intervention to reduce this disparity.

Supporting Inpatient Pharmacy Efforts to Reduce Costs. CDI2 is working with the LSfV Inpatient Pharmacy team to develop a dashboard for inpatient drug utilization and cost. The dashboard stratifies inpatient drug data by hospital unit, service, and provider to identify high-cost drugs, allowing for more focused efforts to reduce costs to both the system and patients.

Data Governance and AI. To ensure appropriate use of health data, CDI2  convenes a team of experts to evaluate data use proposals, and leads aSystemwide Presidential Task Force on Health Data Governance to to develop targeted recommendations around a justice-based model of health data use. CDI2 has also helped UC advance  ethical principles and guidelines for the development and use of artificial intelligence in its healthcare operations.

Systemwide Real-World Evidence Collaborative. To support engagement with government, non-profit, and for-profit entities around large-scale data analytics projects, CDI2 recently launched the Systemwide Real World Evidence Collaborative. The Collaborative creates a platform for leaders across UCH to share ideas and resources for pursuing collaborations that utilize UCH clinical data to assess the potential benefits and risks of a medical product, therapy, or intervention.In April 2023, CDI2 and the Collaborative led an in-person conference, “Harnessing the Power of Real-World Evidence.”

For questions or for more information, please email healthdata@ucop.edu.