Harvard Researchers Bridge Healthcare Gaps Using Insurance Data to Help More Patients

When it comes to medical research, some patients have been falling through the cracks. Pregnant women, diverse populations, and people needing combination therapies often miss out on the benefits of clinical trials. But Harvard Medical School researchers Sebastian Schneeweiss and Shirley Wang are changing that with an inspiring solution that's already making waves in global healthcare.

The dynamic duo has spent nearly a decade perfecting a method that uses real-world insurance data from Medicare and Medicaid to answer critical medical questions that traditional trials simply cannot address. Their project, called RCT-DUPLICATE, transforms routine insurance claims into actionable evidence that can help doctors make better treatment decisions for all their patients.

"We're sitting on this huge pile of longitudinal and patient-level data," explains Schneeweiss, who serves as chief of the Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics at Brigham and Women's Hospital. The team recognized that only a tiny fraction of this wealth of information was being used to help patients, and they set out to change that.

The approach is elegantly simple yet powerfully effective. The researchers recreate clinical trial designs using real-world data, then compare their findings against actual trial results to validate their methods. When their emulations closely match the original trials, they know they can confidently expand the research to answer new questions about different patient populations or additional health outcomes.

The Ripple Effect of this work is already touching lives around the globe. Instructor Nils Krüger recently used this framework to discover that popular GLP-1 medications like semaglutide and tirzepatide provide remarkable cardiovascular benefits beyond their original FDA approval for obesity and Type 2 diabetes. His analysis showed these drugs lowered the risk of hospitalization for heart failure or death by an impressive 40 percent.

This discovery didn't just sit in an academic journal. The World Health Organization incorporated these findings into their international guidelines for GLP-1 medicines, and the American Medical Association recognized the work among their "Research of the Year" selections for 2025. That's real-world impact helping real-world patients.

In another recent breakthrough, Krüger demonstrated that two competing GLP-1 medications provide comparable cardiovascular benefits, clearing up confusion from conflicting company claims. This kind of unbiased information empowers doctors and patients to make informed choices based on factors like cost and availability rather than marketing hype.

Wang emphasizes the practical benefits with enthusiasm. "We love RCTs, but they can't answer all questions," she says. Their work is helping justify insurance coverage for effective treatments, meaning more people can actually access the medications that could help them.

The team has gone to great lengths to maintain scientific rigor, publishing their methods before running analyses and even predicting unpublished trial results to prove their approach works. Their transparency and success are gradually winning over skeptics who once dismissed real-world evidence.

For patients who have been excluded from traditional trials or who need answers faster than years-long studies can provide, this Harvard team is opening doors to better, more personalized healthcare. They're proving that innovation isn't just about discovering new drugs but also about finding smarter ways to use the information we already have to help more people live healthier lives.