Meet RTI Health Advance™

Founded in 1958 by leaders in academia, business, and government, RTI International has grown to be one of the nation’s largest and most trusted nonprofit research institutes. Dedicated to improving the human condition, we believe in the promise of science. We push ourselves every day to deliver on that promise for the good of people, communities, and businesses around the world.

Throughout our 60-year journey, we learned that improving health at the federal level fulfills half of our mission. That’s why we decided to take our expertise in making value-based care work for the public sector to the private sector by creating RTI Health Advance. Our team of experts collaborate directly with industry leaders, bringing the best of RTI International to health payers, providers, employers, and health tech companies.

Backed by leading scientists and experts in over 250 scientific, technical, and professional disciplines, RTI International has addressed some of the world’s most complex scientific and social challenges on behalf of governments, businesses, foundations, universities, and other clients and partners in pursuit of a better future. With RTI Heath Advance, we’re continuing to deliver on that promise of science.

• 1958 – Leaders in academia, business, and government form RTI International with an early focus on applied statistics and environmental research
• 1966 – NASA names RTI one of seven teams created to ensure that space exploration technologies are transferred to the commercial market
• 1978 – RTI chemists test air in homes built over the Love Canal dump site raising awareness of hazards associated with today’s Superfund sites
• 1986 – RTI begins our relationship working with NIH
• 1988 – RTI begins work on the National Survey on Drug Use and Health with a contract award through 2022; RTI begins our relationship with the CDC and CMS
• 1994 – With funding from NASA, RTI develops the first radar-based predictive wind shear detection system installed on commercial aircraft which allows pilots avoid wind shear, a major factor in aviation accidents and fatalities
• 1995 – RTI becomes one of the first organizations to put a new survey tool, audio computer-assisted self-interviewing (ACASI), to use in large-scale field interviewing
• 1996 – RTI begins assisting the South African government with its transition from the apartheid education system to one that providers increasingly equal education opportunities for all citizens
• 1997 - RTI partners with UNC-Chapel Hill to become one of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s evidence-based practice centers
• 2000 - RTI spins off a new company, Ziptronix, which produces integrated circuit chips that are less expensive, faster, and more powerful than existing chips; RTI forms a new business unit, RTI Health Solutions, to provide research and consulting services to biopharmaceuticals and medical device companies
• 2003 – RTI begins a five-year study in South Africa to improve women-focused intervention programs for HIV prevention; RTI researchers working with the CDC provide the first state-by-state estimates of the share of medical expenditures related to obesity; RTI created and maintained risk-adjustment methodologies to support Medicare Advantage and Part D capitated risk to enroll and service a broader population
• 2004 – RTI develops the Obesity Cost Calculator™ to estimate the medical cost and productivity impact obesity has on health plan design for better wellness programs and early intervention strategies
• 2008 – RTI spins off a new company, siXis, to commercialize an innovative technology that promises to increase processing performance while reducing the size of circuits and power requirements
• 2010 – RTI scientists monitor a group of children living in temporary housing in the wake of Katrina and Rita to better understand the potential long-term health effects following natural disaster displacement
• 2011 – RTI designed the implementation of the accountable care organization (ACO) model from its inception to developing the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) critical operational elements to make ACOs successful
• 2012 – RTI won an R&D 100 award for our MicroPEM™ wearable device that allows the real-time measurement of a person’s exposure to risks in the workplace
• 2013 – RTI’s evaluation of a program in New York shows that mandating outpatient treatment to those who need it results in substantial cost savings by cutting hospitalizations
• 2014-2019 – RTI created and implemented quality measures used in the nursing home Star-Rating System and by the national quality reporting programs for long-term care hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, inpatient rehabilitation, and hospice
• 2015 – RTI conducts the first systematic study to evaluate the effectiveness and reliability of biometric data produced by popular wearable devices
• 2016 – RTI created and implemented the performance-based incentive payment (PBIP) for the Comprehensive Primary Care Plus (CPC+) model to strengthen primary care through regionally based, multi-payer payment reform and care delivery transformation
• 2017 – RTI forms The Center for Health Care Advancement, dedicated to delivering research and consultative services to healthcare providers and payers; RTI analyzed the impact of diabetes on healthcare spending, hospital admissions, and unnecessary emergency room visits to improve prevention, population health, and care management strategies
• 2018 – RTI constructed the Oncology Care Model Beneficiary Liability Tool to help medical oncologists estimate what Medicare will not cover for radiation therapy, imaging, and laboratory and other tests
• 2020 – RTI developed measures for National Quality Forum endorsement using a multitude of data sources and techniques; RTI officially launches a new business unit called RTI Health Advance, replacing the Institute’s Center for Health Care Advancement
• 2021 – RTI begins work with government agencies and Garmin^® to explore if COVID and other diseases can be detected through wearables’ biometric data using RTI’s Wearable Research and Analytics Platform (RTI WRAPTM)