HealthVerity launches its Mortality Masterset, powered by Veritas Data Research, to provide the most likely cause of death for health outcomes research

PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- HealthVerity, the leader in synchronizing transformational technologies and real-world data (RWD) to advance the science, today announced the launch of the expertly curated HealthVerity Mortality Masterset, powered by Veritas Data Research.

The solution synchronizes Veritas' Fact of Death dataset, consisting of over 130 million death records from 1935 to today derived from more than 40,000 public and private sources, with a syndicate of open and closed medical claims assembled by HealthVerity from the nation's largest de-identified healthcare and consumer data ecosystem. An advanced analytics engine empowered by deterministic and rules-based algorithms processes this synchronized data, retracing each patient's medical history back 36 months prior from the date of passing, to determine the most likely primary and secondary causes of death. Additionally, each individual is de-identified using a universal HealthVerity ID that allows the Mortality Masterset to be seamlessly synchronized with other data sources for a comprehensive view of the patient journey.

It is important to know not just if a patient died, but whether the cause of death was from the disease being studied to better measure treatment efficacy and overall survival, address any safety issues, and make appropriate public health policy decisions. While cause of death is captured in death certificates that are collected by states and passed onto the CDC, access to these records is restricted, can take up to a year or more to receive, and they are not de-identified or interoperable. Additionally, the cause of death listed on the death certificate is often prone to error, with peer reviewed studies showing error rates ranging from 34% to 52% or even higher.¹ Additionally, cardiac events are over reported on death certificates as a catchall when the true cause of death is unknown.

"Death is a critical endpoint in health research and related disciplines; however, the cause of death is rarely available in public notices and is often inaccurate in official death certificates," explained Veritas CEO Jason LaBonte. "The Mortality Masterset offering is the first widely-accessible dataset to include cause of death for health research and risk modeling."

"We saw a need amongst our clients in the life sciences industry to have an accurate cause of death for long-term follow up and health outcome studies, and we're happy to be able to partner with Veritas to create the Mortality Masterset," said Andrew Kress, HealthVerity CEO. "By synchronizing this breadth and depth of de-identified data, we are able to provide the most accurate, pre-assembled cause of death determination in a HIPAA-compliant format that allows our clients to start their studies immediately, without having to do additional research on the cause of death."

The Mortality Masterset is an addition to the growing suite of HealthVerity Mastersets, including the Provider Diversity and Diagnosis Index (PDI) Masterset, Maternal Outcomes Masterset (MOM), Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) Masterset, and COVID-19 Masterset, all of which are curated by RWD experts to provide speed to insight for a particular area of study.

About HealthVerity

HealthVerity synchronizes transformational technologies with the nation's largest healthcare and consumer data ecosystem to power previously unattainable outcomes and fundamentally advance the science. We offer a comprehensive, yet flexible approach, based on the foundational elements of Identity, Privacy, Governance and Exchange (IPGE), that synchronizes unparalleled Identity management with built-in Privacy compliance and Governance, providing the ability to discover and Exchange a near limitless combination of data at a record pace. Together with our partners in life sciences, government and insurance, we are Synchronizing the Science. To learn more about HealthVerity, visit healthverity.com.

About Veritas Data Research
Veritas makes critical information accessible. Founded by experts in the data and analytics industry, Veritas uses cutting-edge technology and efficient workflow design to collect, curate and distribute foundational reference datasets. To learn more about Veritas, visit https://veritasdataresearch.com/.

HealthVerity Contact:
Colleen Stoker
614-738-0592
[email protected]

Veritas Data Research Contact:
Jelita Victorson-Adams
[email protected]

¹ Schuppener, Leah M., DO, Olson, Kelly, MD and Brooks, Erin G, MD (2020). Death Certification: Errors and Interventions. Clinical Medicine & Research. March 2020, 18(1): 21-26. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7153801/.

SOURCE HealthVerity