Monetizing Molecular Lab Data for Financial Sustainability
Overview
A mid-sized health system (300-500 beds, serving multiple regional communities) with an in-house molecular lab faced financial pressures. Rising costs and limited reimbursement for next-generation sequencing (NGS) and molecular testing threatened the lab’s sustainability. Leadership was evaluating whether the lab was a strategic asset or a cost center, prompting the lab director to search for new revenue opportunities to prove the lab’s strategic value.
While revenue cycle management improvements and reimbursement advocacy were ongoing, the reality was that these approaches offered limited upside in the short term. Many tests still lacked consistent reimbursement pathways, and payer policies continued to create uncertainty. Recognizing this, the lab director began looking beyond traditional cost recovery methods. Data monetization emerged as a complementary strategy, a way to unlock the untapped value of the lab’s data assets without requiring large-scale operational lift.
Despite possessing valuable molecular testing data, the lab lacked a clear path to deriving the full value out of it without compromising data security and compliance. Additionally, preparing unstructured pathology and genomic data for external collaborations was manual and resource intensive, creating an additional operational burden.
Challenges
Financial Uncertainty: The lab needed to generate a new revenue stream to support operations and demonstrate its long-term value to hospital leadership.
Data Utilization: Molecular and pathology data remained untapped, missing opportunities for research and monetization.
Privacy & Compliance Risks: Traditional data-sharing models posed security risks, limiting potential partnerships with pharmaceutical companies.
Resource Constraints: The lab lacked the infrastructure and personnel to manage complex data monetization agreements and compliance requirements.
Data Preparation Barriers: Pathology imaging and molecular data required extensive preparation to be research-ready, adding further complexity.
Why They Chose datma
The lab director explored multiple data monetization options but found traditional models required transferring data to third-party repositories, raising compliance concerns and adding operational complexity. datma’s federated approach allowed them to retain full control over their data while seamlessly collaborating with researchers and pharmaceutical companies seeking real-world data.
Additionally, datma enabled streamlined processing of pathology data from reports, eliminating manual effort in preparing and standardizing pathology and genomic data, ensuring it was research-ready with minimal effort.
The curated dataset that was created also became a valuable asset for internal research initiatives, many of which were previously stalled due to the time and effort required to organize the data.
Solution: datma.FED
By implementing datma.FED, the lab securely monetized its molecular and pathology data while keeping it securely within their own environment. datma.BASE, integrated into datma.FED, automated data readiness, handling everything from extracting unstructured pathology data to mapping source data into a common model. This ensured the lab’s data was ready for external queries with minimal internal effort.
The secure, federated query model enabled pharma companies to analyze de-identified datasets without direct access, eliminating compliance risks. The lab could now passively generate revenue while still maintaining complete oversight and control of how their data was being used.
Results and Impact
New, sustainable revenue stream helped offset operational and testing costs and demonstrated the lab’s value as a strategic asset.
Maintained compliance and governance with full transparency into data access and usage.
New research collaborations accelerated by access to standardized, structured, queryable datasets.