Founder Hemant Virkar spent his early career at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) working to harness the power of data to improve clinical research. Among other roles, he was the chief architect of a breakthrough informatics system to manage AIDS clinical research at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
From inside NIH, Mr. Virkar could see that the health sector was far behind others in unleashing the power of data. As a result, patients and doctors lacked information and insights they needed, including Mr. Virkar’s own father facing pancreatic cancer. And, while research was turning the tide on diseases, it was happening far too slowly.
Mr. Virkar left NIH and assembled a team to solve these problems by delivering his vision for innovative computer services, informatics, and enterprise solutions. With patient outcomes over profits as their founding value, the original team of four became DIFZ.
We’ve also expanded from our healthcare roots as organizations across the public- and private-sector spectrum sought help with an array of data needs. Along the way, we discovered that getting our start in healthcare—a sector that was so far behind, with lives and well-being at stake—has paid off, making us better stewards of digital transformation in every context.
We still serve NIH and other federal clients. We evolved the original AIDS clinical research informatics system into an Institute-wide system at NIAID—a system instrumental to the U.S. scientific community’s lightning-fast response to COVID-19. Among others, our government client list includes the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the National Institute on Aging (NIA), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
We also build large-scale enterprise systems for public- and private-sector clients ranging from the World Bank, to the Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium (CDSIC), and Harvard University, as well as pharmaceutical firms like Sanofi Genzyme and Merck Serono.
Simply put, we love to solve problems and help unleash the power of data.