# Research Data and Analysis Core

> **NIH AHRQ P30** · UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA · 2024 · $382,699

## Abstract

Contact PD/PI: HALPERN, SCOTT
PROJECT SUMMARY
The University of Pennsylvania (Penn) Patient-Oriented Research and Training to Accelerate Learning
(Penn PORTAL) includes an Administrative Core, Research Education Core (REC), Research & Data
Analysis Core (RDAC), and Equity & Community Engagement (ECE) unit. The goal of the RDAC is to
centralize, expand, and support the people, processes, methods, and technical resources necessary to
keep Penn’s learning health system (LHS) research-ready – that is, able to identify high-priority
questions, rapidly design and test potential solutions, measure patient-centered outcomes using
comparative effectiveness methods, disseminate results to key stakeholders, and foster implementation.
These goals will be achieved by uniting the multidisciplinary expertise at Penn essential to executing
LHS studies, using this expertise to design and complete LHS studies, and deploying state-of-the-art
methods to build, curate, and disseminate accessible data resources and knowledge. The RDAC will be
co-led by Drs. Kevin Johnson and Michael Harhay. Dr. Johnson has led the development and
implementation of clinical information systems and clinical decision support to drive LHS research for
over 20 years, and as Vice President for Applied Informatics for Penn’s health system, he is uniquely
positioned to support the RDAC’s activities. Dr. Harhay is a biostatistician and epidemiologist with
extensive experience in designing and analyzing LHS projects, particularly pragmatic and cluster trials.
In addition to supporting the broader REC and PORTAL training and research activities, the RDAC will
accomplish three major endeavors. First, they will establish and lead the ‘Penn LHS studio’ that will
bring together senior LHS stakeholders, including clinical operations and informatics leaders, with the
RDAC leads and PORTAL MPIs for monthly meetings where the priority, feasibility, and ongoing needs
of LHS proposals and projects will be assessed to ensure the expediency and success of new and
ongoing projects (Aim 1). Second, they will develop a multidisciplinary PCOR/CER study design and
analysis service to support the entire lifecycle of LHS projects and educate LHS Scientists. This service
will include fourteen faculty with expertise spanning study design, advanced statistical methods,
implementation science, health care operations and systems science, community engagement, and the
ethics of human subjects research, particularly for pragmatic trials (Aim 2). Third, the RDAC will build,
standardize, curate, and disseminate essential and unique data assets and knowledge to catalyze LHS
science. Current and planned projects include developing tools to capture social determinants of health,
producing an online catalog of LHS solutions that have been tested and implemented (over 75+
interventions implemented and 400+ publications to date), protocolizing data extraction algorithms, and
collating all discrete and free-text patient data to s...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10815111
- **Project number:** 1P30HS029745-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
- **Principal Investigator:** KEVIN B. JOHNSON
- **Activity code:** P30 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** AHRQ
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $382,699
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-01-01 → 2028-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10815111

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10815111, Research Data and Analysis Core (1P30HS029745-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10815111. Licensed CC0.

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