About Us

The Institute for Healthcare Informatics (IHI) is a secure computing center that holds electronic health record and claims data for the vast majority of the Western New York population. This data repository is available to researchers throughout the Buffalo Translational Consortium at no cost for IRB-approved projects. The IHI is also part of the TriNetX Research Network, allowing researchers to access global data sets. 

The IHI was established in 2012 with funding from the New York State HEAL initiative. In 2014, we received additional funding as part of the Buffalo Institute for Genomics and Data Analytics. The IHI is a partner in the UB Clinical and Translational Science Institute.

The IHI has forged a close partnership with Great Lakes Health (GLH), which includes UB|MD, Kaleida Health, and Erie County Medical Center. This partnership with GLH benefits both UB and Kaleida, providing improved access to data for research, quality assurance/quality improvement, and clinical trials. Joint executive positions, including the Chief Medical Information Officer and Chief Research Informatics Officer (CRIO), are held by representatives from both UB and Kaleida. Collaboration is further fostered through the Kaleida Research Innovation Committee, chaired by the CRIO, which includes key GLH stakeholders to promote interdisciplinary collaboration.

One of the key components of the IHI is the UB Clinically Integrated Healthcare Data Repository (CIDR). This repository holds electronic health record and claims data for the vast majority of the Western New York population. By leveraging the CIDR, researchers gain access to comprehensive and diverse datasets that enable a wide range of research endeavors.