New collaboration provides access, allows users to make decisions based on data

Archimedes, Inc., a healthcare modeling and analytics company, announced today that it has begun collaborating with the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to provide unprecedented access to synthetic CMS claims data. The collaborative efforts will feature the use of Archimedes' ARCHeS Simulation and Analytics software suite to provide easy to use analytic support to analyze the Medicare Data Entrepreneurs' Synthetic Public Use File (DE-SynPUF). Data entrepreneurs and researchers will be able to use the synthetic data to develop research protocols that will ultimately help users make informed decisions based on the data.

"HHS is committed to furthering the power of data and we have entered into this important collaboration to help maximize the availability and use of the Medical DE-SynPUF dataset," said Bryan Sivak, Chief Technology Officer at US Department of Health and Human Services. "We believe the Archimedes technology will help interested parties gain access to this data in an easy-to-use platform that will allow them to customize their analysis queries, yielding more meaningful results."

Access to CMS Linkable 2008-2010 Medicare DE-SynPUF provides researchers and data entrepreneurs a glimpse into the wealth of information contained in the CMS claims data. The challenge has been the ability to deliver big data, like the DE-SynPUF set in an easy-to-use format that provides a straightforward method for analysis. Archimedes' ARCHeS Population Explorer (ARCHeS PE) will allow users to quickly query and analyze the dataset to understand the rates of various outcomes for specific Medicare populations, such as those with a particular health condition, age criterion, medication use, or a combination of these factors. Access to the Medicare DE-SynPUF datasets are made freely available through Archimedes' tools via http://www.healthdata.gov and Archimedes' website at http://www.archimedesmodel.com/free-applications.

"Our continued collaboration efforts with organizations like HHS, and its subsidiary agencies, are crucial for us to realize our vision of revolutionizing medicine worldwide through mathematics," said David Eddy, M.D., Ph.D., founder of Archimedes and pioneer in the area of evidenced-based medicine. "Our modeling and analytics tools can help researchers, life-science organizations, government agencies, payers, and providers use the data to make informed decisions for the benefit of their constituents. The beauty of ARCHeS PE is that you do not need to be a statistician in order for you to benefit from the data."