New peer-reviewed paper in Science advocates for ethical stewardship, interoperability, and public oversight of real-world data
BELLEVUE, Wash.—March 5, 2026—Truveta today announced its participation as a contributing author to a new peer-reviewed Policy Forum article in Science titled “Governing real-world health data as a public utility.” The paper, led by Melissa A. Haendel, PhD, and coauthored by leaders across academia, healthcare, nonprofit, and industry, outlines a framework for treating real-world health data (RWD) as essential infrastructure, governed with the same accountability, interoperability, and public oversight as other public utilities.
The article argues that although real-world data hold enormous promise for improving public health, precision medicine, drug safety monitoring, and real-time clinical decision-making, they remain fragmented, proprietary, and inconsistently governed. The authors propose a federated, standards-based, community-driven model that balances patient empowerment, innovation, and public trust, while embedding enforceable obligations and regulatory accountability.
For Truveta, participation in this effort reflects its core mission: Saving Lives with Data. By advancing high-quality, interoperable real-world data that can be responsibly accessed and trusted, Truveta seeks to accelerate the generation of real-world evidence that improves care, informs public health, and drives life-saving innovation. The public utility framework outlined in the paper reinforces the principle that health data, when stewarded ethically and governed transparently, can serve both individual patients and the broader public good, ensuring that data are not siloed assets, but catalysts for better outcomes at scale.
“Real-world data are foundational to advancing evidence generation and improving patient outcomes,” said Ryan Ahern, MD, MPH, Chief Medical Officer and co-founder of Truveta. “We are honored to join this distinguished group of authors in calling for a governance model that treats health data as essential infrastructure. Saving Lives with Data requires not only advanced analytics and high-quality datasets, but also the trust, transparency, and accountability demanded in an era of the FDA’s evolving single-trial paradigm. This framework helps align policy, incentives, and stewardship to responsibly accelerate innovation while protecting patients.”
The paper draws lessons from established public utilities such as electricity, water, and the internet, emphasizing that enforceable standards, distributed stewardship, and economic sustainability are essential to durable infrastructure. The authors contend that voluntary participation and uneven incentives have constrained the impact of existing RWD efforts and call for regulatory modernization to ensure interoperability, equitable access, and long-term investment.
Dr. Melissa Haendel, lead author of the paper, stated:
“Health data are no longer byproducts of care; they are essential infrastructure for public health, research, and innovation. By governing real-world data as a public utility, we can align incentives, embed accountability, and ensure that patients and communities are the primary beneficiaries. This framework is not about centralizing control; it is about building a federated, community-driven model that balances privacy, equity, and innovation in the public interest.”
The article also highlights the need to modernize legal and regulatory frameworks beyond HIPAA, clarify public health and research use cases, strengthen privacy protections, and establish transparent economic models to sustain shared infrastructure. The proposed approach emphasizes federated architectures to avoid centralization risks while enabling secure, scalable data integration across sectors.
The full paper, “Governing real-world health data as a public utility,” appears in the March 2026 issue of Science.
About Truveta
Saving Lives with Data starts with better evidence. Truveta is a real-world intelligence company unlocking breakthrough discoveries and transforming medicine with unprecedented data and predictive AI. Built with and owned by U.S. health systems, we deliver regulatory-grade evidence and real-time insights used across clinical care, research, and public health.
Truveta membership includes Providence, Advocate Health, Trinity Health, Tenet Healthcare, Northwell Health, AdventHealth, Baptist Health of Northeast Florida, Baylor Scott & White Health, Bon Secours Mercy Health, CommonSpirit Health, Hawaii Pacific Health, HealthPartners, Henry Ford Health System, HonorHealth, Inova, Lehigh Valley Health Network, MedStar Health, Memorial Hermann Health System, MetroHealth, Novant Health, Ochsner Health, Premier Health, Saint Luke’s Health System, Sanford Health, Sentara Healthcare, Texas Health Resources, TriHealth, UnityPoint Health, Virtua Health, and WellSpan Health.