Real-world evidence: Improve healthcare data-driven decision making

In the healthcare and life sciences sectors, there is a growing emphasis on utilizing real-world evidence (RWE) to enhance clinical decision-making and patient care, addressing the limitations of traditional randomized control trials (RCTs) due to their high cost and time demands. The digitization of healthcare data, driven by industry consolidation and regulatory mandates, has led to an expansive pool of real-world clinical data, which can be leveraged to improve patient outcomes and accelerate drug development. Organizations like the Mayo Clinic and EMIS Health are using extensive patient records to provide more personalized care, while companies like GSK and 23andMe are integrating RWE into clinical research to optimize trial protocols. Despite the promise of RWE, challenges such as data privacy, security, and the need for a single access point to disparate data sources remain. Solutions like data federation and data products are proposed to streamline access and use of RWE, while secure access control and data harmonization standards aim to address compliance and interoperability issues. Empowering clinicians and researchers to utilize and contribute to comprehensive data repositories is seen as crucial for closing the evidence gap in healthcare, ultimately driving more informed, real-time, data-driven decisions without necessitating new technical skills.