[{"innerBlocks":[],"name":"core\/freeform","postId":3430,"blockType":{"name":"core\/freeform","keywords":[],"attributes":{"content":{"type":"string","source":"raw"},"lock":{"type":"object"}},"providesContext":[],"usesContext":[],"selectors":[],"supports":{"className":false,"customClassName":false,"reusable":false},"styles":[],"variations":[],"apiVersion":3,"title":"Classic","description":"Use the classic WordPress editor.","category":"text"},"originalContent":"The Departments of Veterans Affairs and Energy are partnering on a big data initiative designed to help facilitate medical breakthroughs for veteran healthcare, with new studies in the areas of cardiovascular disease, prostate cancer and suicide prevention.

The VA-DOE Big Data Science Initiative will leverage the VA\u2019s Million Veteran Program (MVP), a national voluntary research effort that includes the country\u2019s largest database linking genetic, clinical, lifestyle and military exposure information.

For its part in the collaboration, DOE is contributing expertise and technologies in artificial intelligence, big data and high-performance computing to identify trends supporting the development of new treatments and preventive care.

\u201cThe main driving force was that our Million Veteran Program\u2014the largest genomic cohort of its kind\u2014 was in need of a computing partner, and there really is none better than the Department of Energy,\u201d says Michael Gaziano, MD, principal investigator with MVP.

Part of the new VA-DOE initiative is MVP-Computational Health Analytics for Medical Precision to Improve Outcomes Now (CHAMPION), under which the agencies will make health and genomic data more broadly available to researchers for specific studies.

One planned study will determine what sets of risk factors are the best predictors of certain forms of cardiovascular disease, with the goal of informing individualized therapy and treatments for patients based on their individual risk factors.

Another research area will focus on prostate cancer in an effort to find new ways to assess which cancer tumors are lethal\u2014and therefore require treatment\u2014versus those that are slow-growing and unlikely to cause any symptoms.

In addition, a third study seeks to build algorithms to generate highly tailored personalized risk scores for suicide, which could be used to help predict which patients are at the highest risk, and to develop prevention strategies.

According to Gaziano, MVP has enrolled more than 560,000 veterans so far. Ultimately, the goal is to recruit 1 million veterans to participate in MVP\u2019s genomic database\u2014which includes DNA specimens.

The VA-DOE initiative will access the VA\u2019s electronic health record system, which includes EHRs for 24 million veterans who have used VA for healthcare during the past two decades. The Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA) is the agency\u2019s legacy EHR, which Gaziano calls the \u201cbackbone\u201d of veteran patient records.

Also See<\/b>: VA leveraging health IT to address its 5 top priorities<\/a>

\u201cWe have some of the best healthcare data resources on the planet and\u2014as we utilize the data and add to it the genetic information\u2014we\u2019re creating an unprecedented big data problem. Not only is the data big\u2014it\u2019s extremely complex,\u201d adds Gaziano. The VA-DOE initiative will be based within DOE\u2019s National Laboratory system, which has o<\/i>ne of the world\u2019s preeminent supercomputing capabilities.

Among the reasons the VA partnered with DOE is the fact that the DOE\u2019s National Laboratory system is in a secure environment that\u2019s able to safeguard patient data, Gaziano contends. \u201cWe needed to do this in a way that protects our veterans, and security was paramount,\u201d he says. \u201cWe wanted a big, robust computing environment that would allow investigators to log into that space so that we could keep an eye on what\u2019s going on. But the data itself does not leave the environment.\u201d

The VA-DOE initiative will also securely link MVP data with other sources of health information, including non-VA sources of data from the Department of Defense, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the Center for Disease Control\u2019s National Death Index.

\u201cThose are datasets that we in the VA have used for research purposes over the years and\u2014in some cases\u2014for clinical purposes,\u201d concludes Gaziano. \u201cThere are many other datasets within the VA, such as disease-specific registries like the cancer registry, which we use on a regular basis. We even have the capacity to use the images from various diagnostic tests like MRIs and CT scans.\u201d","saveContent":"The Departments of Veterans Affairs and Energy are partnering on a big data initiative designed to help facilitate medical breakthroughs for veteran healthcare, with new studies in the areas of cardiovascular disease, prostate cancer and suicide prevention.

The VA-DOE Big Data Science Initiative will leverage the VA\u2019s Million Veteran Program (MVP), a national voluntary research effort that includes the country\u2019s largest database linking genetic, clinical, lifestyle and military exposure information.

For its part in the collaboration, DOE is contributing expertise and technologies in artificial intelligence, big data and high-performance computing to identify trends supporting the development of new treatments and preventive care.

\u201cThe main driving force was that our Million Veteran Program\u2014the largest genomic cohort of its kind\u2014 was in need of a computing partner, and there really is none better than the Department of Energy,\u201d says Michael Gaziano, MD, principal investigator with MVP.

Part of the new VA-DOE initiative is MVP-Computational Health Analytics for Medical Precision to Improve Outcomes Now (CHAMPION), under which the agencies will make health and genomic data more broadly available to researchers for specific studies.

One planned study will determine what sets of risk factors are the best predictors of certain forms of cardiovascular disease, with the goal of informing individualized therapy and treatments for patients based on their individual risk factors.

Another research area will focus on prostate cancer in an effort to find new ways to assess which cancer tumors are lethal\u2014and therefore require treatment\u2014versus those that are slow-growing and unlikely to cause any symptoms.

In addition, a third study seeks to build algorithms to generate highly tailored personalized risk scores for suicide, which could be used to help predict which patients are at the highest risk, and to develop prevention strategies.

According to Gaziano, MVP has enrolled more than 560,000 veterans so far. Ultimately, the goal is to recruit 1 million veterans to participate in MVP\u2019s genomic database\u2014which includes DNA specimens.

The VA-DOE initiative will access the VA\u2019s electronic health record system, which includes EHRs for 24 million veterans who have used VA for healthcare during the past two decades. The Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA) is the agency\u2019s legacy EHR, which Gaziano calls the \u201cbackbone\u201d of veteran patient records.

Also See<\/b>: VA leveraging health IT to address its 5 top priorities<\/a>

\u201cWe have some of the best healthcare data resources on the planet and\u2014as we utilize the data and add to it the genetic information\u2014we\u2019re creating an unprecedented big data problem. Not only is the data big\u2014it\u2019s extremely complex,\u201d adds Gaziano. The VA-DOE initiative will be based within DOE\u2019s National Laboratory system, which has o<\/i>ne of the world\u2019s preeminent supercomputing capabilities.

Among the reasons the VA partnered with DOE is the fact that the DOE\u2019s National Laboratory system is in a secure environment that\u2019s able to safeguard patient data, Gaziano contends. \u201cWe needed to do this in a way that protects our veterans, and security was paramount,\u201d he says. \u201cWe wanted a big, robust computing environment that would allow investigators to log into that space so that we could keep an eye on what\u2019s going on. But the data itself does not leave the environment.\u201d

The VA-DOE initiative will also securely link MVP data with other sources of health information, including non-VA sources of data from the Department of Defense, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the Center for Disease Control\u2019s National Death Index.

\u201cThose are datasets that we in the VA have used for research purposes over the years and\u2014in some cases\u2014for clinical purposes,\u201d concludes Gaziano. \u201cThere are many other datasets within the VA, such as disease-specific registries like the cancer registry, which we use on a regular basis. We even have the capacity to use the images from various diagnostic tests like MRIs and CT scans.\u201d","order":0,"get_parent":{},"attributes":[],"attributesType":{"content":{"type":"string","source":"raw"},"lock":{"type":"object"}},"dynamicContent":""}]

VA, DOE join forces to harness power of big health data

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