The Office of Informatics supports the biomedical and clinical informatics needs of Advocate Health and Wake Forest University School of Medicine investigators by providing expert guidance, informatics tools, programming support, and management of the Translational Data Warehouse (TDW). The TDW is a comprehensive research data warehouse integrating clinical data from EHR systems with other research information from multiple data sources. Currently, the TDW consists of clinical data including demographics, diagnoses, procedures, medications, lab results, vitals, and visit details from the medical record (historical and current). Data can be used for retrospective chart reviews and analysis, to identify patients for recruitment, or to pull aggregate numbers for cohort identification and build projected enrollment tables.
We are pleased to share that Encompass data from the Winston-Salem region is now flowing directly into the TDW, which already includes data from legacy WakeOne (2012-March 2024) and from legacy Charlotte region Encompass (July 2021-current). Researchers can access the TDW directly using the self-service i2b2 platform to build queries and the DataPuller tool extract IRB-approved row level patient data. Please keep in mind that many patients now have more than one MRN which can be used to look them up in Encompass: an Encompass MRN and one or more MRNs from legacy EHR systems. Given the multiplicity of MRNs per patient, researchers using MRNs should use a secondary identifier (for example name or date of birth) to verify they have the correct patient’s data while performing research.
We understand the importance of streamlined data access and are committed to providing initial consultations and basic data pulls at no cost, supported by the CTSI Informatics team. For larger, more complex data extraction needs Office of Informatics programmers are able to assist, leveraging both the TDW and the multiple source systems such as WakeOne, Encompass, and Cerner. Their services are available either through FTE support (for larger projects and grants) or at the CTSI Data/Informatics Programming hourly rate. Keep in mind that each data set and source will need to be extracted separately and therefore the more data sets needed, the more hours of work (and therefore funding) will be required to perform the extraction. Similarly, additional time and funding will be needed for projects asking for data sets/sources to be combined into a single data set (if possible, as some patients only exist in one system).
Our goal is to maximize the impact of research on health outcomes by supporting research across the enterprise, and we look forward to collaborating with clinical researchers to advance scientific discoveries and improve patient care. For inquiries and support, please contact the Office of Informatics at ctsidata@wakehealth.edu or attend one of our twice weekly open consultation hours.
We are pleased to share that Encompass data from the Winston-Salem region is now flowing directly into the TDW, which already includes data from legacy WakeOne (2012-March 2024) and from legacy Charlotte region Encompass (July 2021-current). Researchers can access the TDW directly using the self-service i2b2 platform to build queries and the DataPuller tool extract IRB-approved row level patient data. Please keep in mind that many patients now have more than one MRN which can be used to look them up in Encompass: an Encompass MRN and one or more MRNs from legacy EHR systems. Given the multiplicity of MRNs per patient, researchers using MRNs should use a secondary identifier (for example name or date of birth) to verify they have the correct patient’s data while performing research.
We understand the importance of streamlined data access and are committed to providing initial consultations and basic data pulls at no cost, supported by the CTSI Informatics team. For larger, more complex data extraction needs Office of Informatics programmers are able to assist, leveraging both the TDW and the multiple source systems such as WakeOne, Encompass, and Cerner. Their services are available either through FTE support (for larger projects and grants) or at the CTSI Data/Informatics Programming hourly rate. Keep in mind that each data set and source will need to be extracted separately and therefore the more data sets needed, the more hours of work (and therefore funding) will be required to perform the extraction. Similarly, additional time and funding will be needed for projects asking for data sets/sources to be combined into a single data set (if possible, as some patients only exist in one system).
Our goal is to maximize the impact of research on health outcomes by supporting research across the enterprise, and we look forward to collaborating with clinical researchers to advance scientific discoveries and improve patient care. For inquiries and support, please contact the Office of Informatics at ctsidata@wakehealth.edu or attend one of our twice weekly open consultation hours.