Today Truveta announced a new research letter published in JAMA Network Open using de-identified patient data from Truveta Studio. Published in collaboration with Anupam B. Jena, MD, PhD and Christopher M Worsham, MD, MPH from Harvard University, the new research identified changes in prescribing of oral minoxidil following the publication of a New York Times article on the topic.
This collaborative research found that the weekly rate of first-time minoxidil prescriptions was significantly higher in the eight weeks following article publication compared with eight weeks prior. The proportion of men first-time users was higher after publication (post- vs. pre-article, 43.6% vs. 37.7%), as was the proportion that was white (68.6% vs. 60.8%). Those prescribed minoxidil after publication also had fewer comorbidities in general (16.0% vs 22.1% for diabetes; chronic kidney disease, 14.4% vs 22.3%; hypertension, 38.3% vs. 46.7%).
After the initial increase corresponding to article publication, there was a decline in prescriptions overall and for both men and women.
“As medical researchers, our goal to better understand and improve public health can’t be achieved alone,” said Anupam B. Jena, MD, PhD, Harvard University physician and economist, host of the Freakonomics, MD podcast, and author (with Christopher Worsham) of Random Acts of Medicine. “By collaborating with others and sharing up-to-date, detailed, large-scale data, we can answer questions that would otherwise take years to study. This collaboration was an excellent example of that.”
Power of timely, representative data to speed time to insight
Researchers face frustrating months-long delays to their work — from assessing the feasibility of generating a representative population for analysis, to the time to create a secure data analytics infrastructure. Fragmented and limited tools slow research, drive-up costs, and limit transparency and trust in study conclusions.
Truveta provides complete, timely, and clean health data on US health to study patient care with representative and precise populations, leading to fast insights. Both the completeness of the data and the speed of accessing it cut the typical waiting and research time down from months to days.
“This was an exciting project for us because we were able to use the power of timely data in Truveta Studio to contribute to a public health discussion,” said Nick Stucky, MD, PhD, vice president of Research at Truveta and practicing infectious disease physician and researcher at Providence Portland Medical Center. “The Truveta Community brings together healthcare, academic, and life science leaders to accelerate trusted research by connecting data, people, and ideas. It has been an honor to partner with Dr. Jena and Dr. Worsham as a part of this community and learn from their experiences and perspectives. We look forward to continuing to collaborate.”
You can read the full study in JAMA Network Open. You can learn more about Truveta Studio on Truveta.com.