Eligibility

The COVID-19 Real-world Data Infrastructure (CRWDi) Outreach data resource will be available to support research projects for up to 25 non-commercial domestic academic research groups, provided there is no real or apparent conflict of interest. The process to request access to the data will be as follows. First, each member of the investigator team will be required to complete the NCI SEER authentication and access process. Once completed, the investigators will be able to access the HealthVerity Marketplace to begin to do cohort discovery on this data system as a prelude to developing a specific request targeting a research question.

Data Access

The set of investigator teams will leverage tools listed below.

HealthVerity Marketplace Cohort Discovery Tool – The Marketplace Cohort discovery toolExternal Web Site Policy supports a COTS Data Discovery Platform (The HealthVerity Discovery Platform) that allows approved users (e.g. Researchers) to perform simplified searches against these data to determine the potential sample size for cohort(s) that are fit for the research questions being proposed.

Analytics Environment – The Analytics Environment leverages Databricks to provide researchers with a robust analytics layer, avoiding the need for researchers to provide their own big-data infrastructure or analytic tools. In the latter instance, the CRWDi Analytics platform capabilities include built-in support for multiple programming languages that are widely used in data analytics and machine learning, including Python, R, SQL, and Scala. This allows users to work in the language they are most comfortable with and use the most suitable language for specific tasks. Cloud-based analytics precludes download of individual level data but permits download of aggregated results such as tables or figures.

This data resource will be made available free of charge. No associated funding will be available to the research groups for the performance of their research.

The data will be available for approved researchers to access through April 2025 via the HealthVerity Analytics Environment.

CRWDi Data Access Process

1

Register in eRA Commons

Register your institution on eRA Commons.
*All participating applicants must have an eRA Commons account and signed necessary DUA

2

Create account in eRA Commons

As part of the authentication process, an applicant signs up for Research Plus account and signs the SEER DUA.

3

Submit Account Authentication to NCI

Applicant emails proof of SEER DUA authentication (Research Plus account) to NCI.

4

Sign CRWDi DUA

Applicant receives & signs Healthverity CRWDi DUA to permit access to Marketplace
CRWDi@healthverity.com

5

Track Marketplace Access

A HealthVerity Marketplace account is created for preliminary data exploration. Applicant is notified via email from HealthVerity marketplace.

6

Create Research Cohort

HealthVerity Marketplace enables researchers with basic data discovery capability, to see overlap of patients across specified criteria.

7

Submit Data Request

Access to Data Analytics platform requires 2 levels of approval:

  1. Scientific Review including:
    1. A brief protocol (1-2 pages)
    2. A brief analytic plan
    3. A brief justification of the research questions
    4. Identified SEER Variables
  2. IRB Approval

Applicant submits 1a-1d to NCI for Scientific Review.

8

Conduct Review for Authorization

NCI informs applicant of the Scientific Review outcome including identified SEER variables review.

9

IRB Approval

NCI approved Applicant initiates IRB Approval and notifies NCI of the decision.

10

Track Data Analytics Tool Access

HealthVerity team creates an account for NCI approved researchers in Data Analytics tool (DataBricks), and contacts the user for training and support via "welcome" email from HV Product Team.

11

Perform Analytics and Download Report

Authorized user(s) perform analysis in Data Analytics tool (DataBricks) and may download the final report once approved (e.g., aggregated tables or figures).
*Download of Raw Data is not permitted