The Massachusetts Health Disparities Repository (MHDR)

The Massachusetts Healthcare Disparities Repository (MHDR) is a collaborative research program between the Boston University School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center. By leveraging advances in informatics we are able to monitor the health status of the residents of the Greater Boston metropolitan area and identify opportunities to alleviate disparities in both access to care and healthcare outcomes.

The MHDR utilizes de-identified clinical patient data from Boston Medical Center and our affiliated community health centers. Users with access to the MHDR can perform queries in three ways:  1) via the i2b2 Query Cell; 2) via the i2b2 HOME Cell; and 3) via direct analysis of data extracts within the secure workspace using SAS, Stata, or R.

A high level summary of the data sources and processing to create the MHDR is shown below:

Access
Use of the MHDR requires approvals for research protocols by the Boston HealthNet Research Committee and the Executive Directors of each Community Health Center involved. To request more information, click here.