New Network-Based Research Unit Connects Researchers
The COVID-19 pandemic has suddenly hit the world with a virus that we know almost nothing about. We don’t have a good understanding of how the virus affects people of different ages, races, medical conditions, etc. Many states are reporting only the most basic information, such as the number of deaths.
The Network-Based Research Unit (NBRU) at the Michigan Institute for Clinical & Health Research (MICHR), working together with several regional and national research networks, has pivoted to work collaboratively on the Coronavirus pandemic by making COVID-19 patient data available to researchers.
“By collecting and aggregating data from many institutions, we will be able to rapidly get a better and more complete picture of what is happening to patients with COVID-19,” said David Hanauer, MD, MS, Clinical Associate Professor, Pediatrics Ambulatory Care Program and Faculty Lead, Informatics, MICHR. “This collaborative approach will help us understand what treatments are and are not working, and help us predict who might be most at risk for having bad outcomes so that therapies and resources can be more effectively targeted.”
Researchers interested in accessing local or national aggregated patient data, searching for current COVID-19 trials, or initiating their own studies should contact the NBRU by emailing um-michr@umich.edu.
How are researchers securely accessing the COVID-19 patient data?
When COVID-19 began to strike the US, the NBRU mobilized MICHR’s informatics team to identify patients with COVID-19 within Michigan Medicine using electronic health record (EHR) data and move some of the EHR data into these network databases. This is all done in a secure manner that de-identifies each individual patient’s identity.
“We have the unique capacity to support U-M’s research community in conducting transformative research. With the combination of access to real-world data from multiple sites across the nation, patient partnerships, and national IT platforms we offer high-level connections and solutions to research questions,” said Kanchan Lota, MPH, Senior Administrator of MICHR’s Network-Based Research Unit. “Because of our ability to rapidly respond, NBRU was able to submit data to these national networks as well as harness data from these nation-wide data sets.”
National Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Network (PCORnet) data, for example, is being reported back to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). NBRU will continue to work with these networks to submit frequent updates of the data and support research teams in accessing these networks for COVID-19 and other worldwide research.
About the Network-Based Research Unit
About a year ago MICHR created the Network-Based Research Unit (NBRU) with the goal of creating a centralized resource for participating in national networks that collect data in a standard manner so it can be aggregated for research. With most research, having larger numbers of patients means having a more accurate and trustworthy picture of whatever is being studied. These large networks allow for far greater numbers so that we can more readily carry out studies that might be difficult or impossible to conduct at a single institution. The networks also allow us to get the necessary number of patients much more quickly and take into account regional differences that might otherwise cloud our findings.
Learn more about the NBRU and affiliated regional and national networks and consortia here.