Four Health Data Networks Illustrate The Potential For A Shared National Multipurpose Big-Data Network

This article describes four data networks that share a common approach to repurposing electronic health records and administrative data. The four programs featured are the Food and Drug Administration’s Mini-Sentinel program (which focuses on medical product safety), the National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network (PCORnet, comparative effectiveness research), the National Institutes of Health’s Health Care Systems Research Collaboratory Distributed Research Network (biomedical research), and ESPnet (public health surveillance).