The New Jersey Integrated Population Health Data (iPHD) Project

Enacted through legislation in 2016, the New Jersey Integrated Population Health Data (iPHD) Project is designed to enable and promote population health research that leads to improvements in the health, safety, security, and well-being of New Jersey residents as well as improvements in the cost-efficiency of state government programs in these areas. The overarching concept of the iPHD is that programmatic data are much more informative when they are linked across different service areas (e.g., health, social services) than when they remain in isolation from one another. The iPHD Project is modeled on other successful data integration projects around the country, as described in a white paper by the Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers Good Care Collaborative.

Under the direction of a ten-member Governing Board, the iPHD will be operated by Rutgers Center for State Health Policy (CSHP). The Governing Board is currently chaired by the designee of the New Jersey Commissioner of Health, and includes five ex officio members, or their designees: the Commissioner of Human Services, State Treasurer, Attorney General, Rutgers Chief Information Officer, and the CSHP Director (non-voting). In addition, two public members appointed by the Governor and one each by the Senate President and the Speaker of the Assembly serve fixed terms on the Board. Public members will be experts in four specific areas: (1) legal requirements for data privacy and security, (2) “big data” analysis and security, (3) advocacy on behalf of persons whose data may be included in the iPHD, and (4) a New Jersey university-based researcher with expertise in human subject research.

Governing Board as of May 2020*

*The iPHD is grateful for the commitment and many contributions of the late Ranjana Madhusudhan, Chief Economist at the NJ Department of the Treasury who served as the Treasurer’s designee on the Governing Board until April 2020. We mourn her loss.