Carelon Research

What Carelon Research does

Carelon Research is the healthcare research subsidiary of Elevance Health, providing real-world evidence generation and clinical research services to life sciences companies, government agencies, academic institutions, and health service providers and payers. Founded in 1996 as HealthCore and rebranded to Carelon Research in March 2023, the company operates from Wilmington, Delaware with additional offices in Andover, Newton, and Watertown, Massachusetts, and serves 51-100 employees as the operating research arm of one of the largest US health insurers.

The company's core technology is the Healthcare Integrated Research Database (HIRD), a proprietary database containing health-related information for more than 90 million people currently and formerly enrolled in commercial, Medicare, and Medicaid health plans. HIRD links enrollment records to healthcare claims and connects to clinical and supplemental data including laboratory results and oncology records, with monthly updates and historical data available from January 2006. In January 2025, Carelon Research launched Carelon Real World Data, an analysis-ready closed claims dataset linked with electronic health records, made available for licensing to life sciences partners. The 2023 acquisition of New England Research Institutes, Inc. (NERI) added clinical trial, epidemiology, public health, and bio-behavioral research capabilities operating under the Carelon Research brand.

Carelon Research generates revenue through two streams: professional research services spanning health economics and outcomes research, safety and epidemiology research, clinical research, patient-centered research, and health services research; and recurring/subscription data licensing of HIRD and Carelon Real World Data to life sciences organizations. The company operates a direct enterprise sales motion targeting life sciences accounts, with conference-led demand generation at ISPOR, AMCP, and other venues, and a complementary channel partnership through the Datavant Connect ecosystem on AWS Clean Rooms for privacy-preserving multi-party data collaboration. Customer concentration centers on pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device, and diagnostic companies as the primary segment, with secondary segments in government agencies (NIH, CDC), academic research leaders, and payers/health service providers.

Name

Carelon Research

Legal name

Carelon Research

Website

https://carelonresearch.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1996

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Carelon Research is the healthcare research subsidiary of Elevance Health, providing real-world evidence and clinical research services to life sciences companies, government agencies, academic institutions, and payers using a proprietary database covering 90+ million lives.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Healthcare Research Services

NAICS

Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (54171), Scientific Research and Development Services (5417), Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services (541690)

SIC

Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731), Services-Health Services (8000)

akta.pro primary industry

Real-World Evidence (RWE), HEOR & Epidemiology CROs (HLAGAAAK)

akta.pro secondary industries

Real-World Data (RWD) / Real-World Evidence (RWE) & Observational Research Platforms (HLACAOAM), Healthcare Outcomes & Real-World Evidence (RWE) Analytics (BPAHALAN), Real-World Evidence (RWE) & HEOR for Development (HLAIALAI)

Keywords

• Real-world evidence research
• Health economics outcomes
• Clinical research services
• Pharmacoepidemiology studies
• Healthcare claims analytics

Headquarters

HQ city

Wilmington

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices4 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. Research Services: Comprehensive research services including health economics and outcomes research, safety and epidemiology research, clinical research, and patient-centered research. Delivered by a deep bench of researchers and therapeutic experts.
2. Data Licensing: Licensing of Carelon Real World Data and HIRD data subsets to life sciences companies, government agencies, and academic researchers for real-world evidence generation.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Carelon Research provides real-world evidence (RWE) research services and proprietary real-world data products to life sciences companies, government agencies, academic institutions, and health service providers. Its core data products include the Healthcare Integrated Research Database (HIRD), covering 90+ million lives, and the Carelon Real World Data dataset launched in January 2025. It also delivers full-service research in health economics and outcomes, safety and epidemiology, clinical research, patient-centered research, and health services research.

Product overview

Carelon Research operates as a healthcare research company offering both data products and research services. The core data products include the Healthcare Integrated Research Database (HIRD), a proprietary database covering 90+ million lives with claims, EHR, and clinical data, and Carelon Real World Data, an analysis-ready closed claims dataset linked with EHR data available for licensing (launched January 2025). These are complemented by research service offerings including Health Economics & Outcomes Research, Safety & Epidemiology Research, Clinical Research, Patient-centered Research, and Health Services Research. The company was rebranded from HealthCore to Carelon Research in March 2023 and is a subsidiary of Elevance Health.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Carelon Real World Data: Analysis-ready closed claims dataset linked with electronic health records for real-world evidence generation.
• HIRD (Healthcare Integrated Research Database)

Products and services

• Healthcare Integrated Research Database (HIRD) Proprietary database containing health-related information for more than 90 million people currently and formerly enrolled in commercial, Medicare, and Medicaid health plans. The HIRD links enrollment records to healthcare claims and connects to clinical and supplemental data including laboratory results and oncology records. Updated monthly with historical data available from January 2006. Used for real-world evidence generation by life sciences clients.
• Carelon Real World Data Analysis-ready closed claims dataset linked with electronic health records, available for licensing to life sciences partners. Provides data quality, depth, and breadth for real-world evidence research.
• Health Economics & Outcomes Research Services Research services developing study designs, translating value stories, and facilitating payer collaborations to generate evidence of real-world value of biomedical products. Targeted at pharmaceutical, biotech, medical device, and diagnostic clients.
• Safety & Epidemiology Research Services Research services uncovering vital evidence on utilization, safety, and effectiveness of biopharmaceuticals and devices in large, real-world patient populations. Includes pharmacoepidemiology expertise.
• Clinical Research Services Coordinating and conducting clinical trials and registries from small studies focused on rare diseases to large studies of complex chronic conditions. Delivered by clinical research operations team.
• Patient-centered Research Services Research services focused on patient-centered outcomes and comparative effectiveness research, including work with PCORnet on patient-centered comparative clinical research.
• Health Services Research Research services examining healthcare delivery, costs, access, and quality of care. Targeted at health service providers, payers, and government stakeholders.

Quantifiable outcome

• HIRD contains health data for 90+ million people across commercial, Medicare, and Medicaid plans

Named customers6 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration1 record

AI capability1 record

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• DatavantcoreTechnology or Integration · 1 January 2025Carelon Research is a partner in the Datavant ecosystem, with its Real World Data available through Datavant Connect powered by AWS Clean Rooms. This cloud-first solution enables life sciences organizations to discover and collaborate on real-world health data for clinical and commercial insights while maintaining privacy through data collaboration without underlying data movement. Since January 2025, four top 20 pharmaceutical companies and 15 leading RWD providers including Carelon Research participated in testing and deploying the solution.
• PCORnetcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership with PCORnet (National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network) focuses on closing gaps in evidence through patient-centered comparative effectiveness research. The collaboration enables data linkage across clinical research networks, self-reported patient networks, and health plans through patient privacy-preserving methods. Carelon Research's videos highlighting this approach received the Gold Award from the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts.
• AWS (Amazon Web Services)coreTechnology or IntegrationThrough the Datavant Connect platform powered by AWS Clean Rooms, Carelon Research's data is made available for privacy-preserving cloud collaboration. AWS Clean Rooms enables multiple parties to collaborate on health data analysis without sharing underlying data.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Flatiron Health: Flatiron Health is an oncology-focused real-world evidence company that compiles EHR and claims data to generate clinical and outcomes evidence for cancer therapeutics, selling into the same pharma and academic clients. Roche-owned, it directly competes for precision oncology RWE budgets.
• Symphony Health (ICON): Symphony Health (now part of ICON plc) provides integrated claims, prescription, and EHR-derived real-world data, closely mirroring HIRD's claims-clinical linkage model, and serves life sciences for HEOR, safety, and commercial analytics.

Emerging players

• HealthVerity: HealthVerity licenses a nationwide privacy-protected data ecosystem linking claims, EHR, lab, and consumer data for life sciences RWE, comparable to the Datavant-AWS Clean Rooms approach Carelon Research has joined via the Datavant partnership.
• TriNetX: TriNetX operates a global federated health research network providing real-world data and analytics for clinical trial design, observational research, and safety studies, overlapping with Carelon Research's clinical research and pharmacoepidemiology offerings.
• Aetion: Aetion provides RWE analytics software (Aetion Evidence Platform) used by life sciences companies and regulators for FDA-grade real-world evidence generation, directly competing with Carelon Research's HEOR and pharmacoepidemiology services.
• Komodo Health: Komodo Health builds a healthcare map from de-identified patient encounters and licenses real-world data insights to life sciences companies, overlapping with Carelon Research's claims+EHR RWE data products for pharma commercial and clinical use cases.
• COTA Healthcare: COTA focuses on real-world oncology and specialty disease evidence using EHR-linked datasets for pharma outcomes research, a direct competitor within Carelon Research's oncology and clinical research service lines.

Others

• Veradigm (formerly Allscripts): Veradigm aggregates de-identified EHR data from its ambulatory footprint and partners with life sciences for RWE, similar to Carelon Research's EHR-enhanced data offerings through Carelon Real World Data.

Broad incumbents

• IQVIA: IQVIA is the largest global CRO and real-world evidence provider, offering E360 claims-linked datasets, HEOR services, and pharmacoepidemiology consulting to the same pharma/biotech life sciences clients as Carelon Research, but at far greater scale and global reach.
• Optum Insight: Optum (a UnitedHealth Group company) operates real-world data assets, HEOR consulting, and life sciences RWE analytics directly analogous to Carelon Research. Both are payer-affiliated RWE businesses with proprietary claims/EHR-linked datasets serving top pharmaceutical sponsors.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/showcase/carelon-research
• Xx.com/carelonresearch

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Carelon Research