Center for Clinical Research Informatics (CCRI)

The Center for Clinical Research Informatics (CCRI) is in the Department of Biomedical Informatics at the University of Pittsburgh and is directed by Shyam Visweswaran, MD, PhD. CCRI oversees the development of a research data warehouse (Neptune), electronic health record data provisioning for large national initiatives, and development of ontologies for the national Accrual to Clinical Trials (ACT) network.

The CCRI is an integral component of several national research networks that include: 1) the Accrual to Clinical Trials (ACT) network that is funded by the National Clinical and Translational Science Award (NCATS), 2) the PaTH network (University of Pittsburgh / UPMC, Penn State, Temple University, John Hopkins University, the Ohio State University and University of Michigan) that is funded by the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), 3) the National Mesothelioma Virtual Bank (NMVB) is a virtual biospecimen registry designed to support and facilitate research that in mesothelioma, 4) the All of Us Research Program that is a landmark longitudinal research effort that aims to engage 1 million or more U.S. participants to revolutionize how disease is prevented and treated based on individual differences in lifestyle, environment and genetics, and 5) the Genomic Information Commons (GIC) that is funded by NCATS.

News

2016 August The National Mesothelioma Virtual Bank (NMVB) is a virtual biospecimen registry designed to support and facilitate research in mesothelioma. It is funded by a grant from the National Institute of Occupational Health and Safety of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

2016 July The Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) at the University of Pittsburgh is funded by a Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA). The goal of the Biomedical Informatics Core is to establish an i2b2-based data repository; and develop and deploy user-friendly, web-based informatics tools such as a Cohort Discovery Tool, a Computable Phenotype Library, and a Data Transfer Tool.

2016 July The University of Pittsburgh is funded as one of the Healthcare Provider Organizations for the national All of Us Research Program, which is a historic effort to gather data from 1 million people living in the United States. The goal of the program is to revolutionize how disease is prevented and treated based on individual differences in lifestyle, environment and genetics. The University of Pittsburgh program, called the All of Us Pennsylvania Research Program, will enroll 120,000 participants. See the University Times and the press release by the University of Pittsburgh.