Researchers: New IDR site improves data access
Includes pre-approved COVID-19 patient dataset
Dec. 1, 2020 — When a faculty member or research team requires patient data — to support grant proposals or to fulfill complex investigative studies — they rely on UF Health Integrated Data Repository Research Services. The team has launched a new website to make data requests easier — and provide health researchers with access to the COVID-19 De-identified Patient Dataset, which is pre-approved by the Institutional Review Board for faster access.
The UF Health Integrated Data Repository is a large-scale database used to collect, store and report on information from across UF Health’s clinical and research enterprises. The IDR Research Services consultation team delivers data to facilitate new research discoveries and support patient care quality and safety efforts. Services include consultation; feasibility and cohort discovery, including i2B2 database training tools, clinical trial patient recruitment support and fulfillment of research data needs.
The IDR Research Services team is a collaboration under the UF Clinical and Translational Science Institute and UF Health Information Technology.
“The IDR provides research services benefit from a unique UF collaboration that unites data experts across from UF Health IT, the CTSI and our health colleges,” said Christopher A. Harle, Ph.D., UF health outcomes and biomedical informatics professor and UF Health chief research information officer.
“The new website describes, in researcher-friendly language, the full scope of data services offered to researchers across UF, and how to navigate interactions with the IDR research team.”
Investigators can use the website to request access to the new dynamic, real-world COVID-19 de-identified patient dataset for use across the university.
Harle added, “The COVID-19 patient dataset’s accessible format and IRB pre-approval supports rapid research. We hope to offer more resources in the future like this to expedite discovery.”
“The IDR team members are true experts in applied biomedical informatics. They are responsive and service-oriented, and they take professional pride in the quality and accuracy of their work. They have helped anticipate and preempt issues in data collection, preprocessing and analysis, improving the overall quality of research products. I also appreciate that they are organically inquisitive and genuinely interested in the research problems themselves, fostering a team-based mentality in moving projects forward. It’s best to get the IDR team involved as early as possible in the process, and to be open to feedback and redirection in how to most effectively proceed on the project at hand.”
— Patrick Tighe, M.D., M.S.
Associate Professor
Donn M. Dennis M.D. Professor in Anesthetic Innovation
University of Florida Term Professor
Departments of Anesthesiology, Orthopaedics and Information Systems/Operations Management
University of Florida
“I have worked with the IDR team for the past five years. The team has been collaborative and instrumental creating an efficient process of data acquisition. The IDR staff have gone out of their way to meet as often as needed to ensure that our data requests are provided to us with a reasonable turnaround time. Working with the IDR team takes the mystery and guessing out of the processes of getting data that can lead to scientific discovery, as well as identifying clinically meaningful patterns.”
— Robert J. Lucero, Ph.D., M.P.H., R.N., FAAN
University Term Professor and Associate Professor of Nursing
