iSpecimen, a supplier of human biospecimens, and Great Lakes Health Connect (GLHC), the leading health information exchange (HIE) in Michigan, have teamed to improve the data network of biospecimens available for research purposes.

With 129 hospitals and 4,000 primary, specialty and allied care organizations, GLHC is in charge of over 90 percent of hospital beds in Michigan with more than seven million patient records. By consolidating the data on human biospecimans, iSpecimen is able to sort large amounts of data form electronic medical records and make them easily accessible to researchers looking for a specific set of patients.

“The goal of an HIE is first and foremost to assist in the coordination of patient care by providing access to clinical information where and when it’s needed,” said Doug Dietzman, executive director of GLHC. “But we also recognize great value for other applications in having access to this data. We support the secure sharing of information that will improve healthcare in other ways. The collaboration with iSpecimen supports our focus of creating care-connected communities, while directly advancing medical innovation and care through improved diagnostics and therapies. The upside is tremendous.” 

Criteria such as patient demographics, disease states, treatment history and genomic profiles will be available at the click of a button.

“We are really excited to announce the new collaboration with GLHC,” said Christopher Lanelli MD, PhD, CEO, at iSpecimen. “GLHC is one of the largest HIEs in the country committed to coordinating and enhancing patient care through data-exchange. With this agreement, they now join the ranks of forward-thinking organizations sharing their access to data and information for the improvement of medical research.”