What is a Cohort?
A cohort specifies a subset of a larger dataset that meets the specific criteria defined by a study's requirements.
On Quark, the first step to defining a cohort is understanding the shape and scope of the data available to a researcher. Briefly, in this step, researchers may access the aggregate statistics of various data assets available on the platform. This enables researchers to gauge whether a dataset's attributes matches their project's requirements.
Subsequently, researchers may "Create a Cohort" and obtain access to de-identified person-level specimen-data, stored under standardized and retrievable vocabularies mapped to the Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership Common Data Model (OMOP CDM).
Benefits of OMOP CDM in Federated Data Access & Analysis
Quark leverages the Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership Common Data Model (OMOP CDM) to:
- streamline data management and analysis, and;
- facilitate an active collaborative research environment.
OMOP transforms raw clinical data into standardized structures (tables) and content (vocabularies like SNOMED and RxNorm). This enables:
- Day 1 research analysis. Since complex clinical data is available in a standardized, retrievable format, researchers can begin their analysis on Day 1;
- Reproducibility in data analysis. By leveraging OMOP CDM, researchers can easily reproduce their analytical workflows in different workstations;
- Federated research and analysis. Researchers may run federated studies across multiple TREs using a single code to extract data.
OMOP enables researchers to easily interact with their data without compromising patient privacy, thus facilitating secure, collaborative research.
On Quark, OMOP-standardized tables are made accessible to researchers once their Cohort Access Request is granted approval. Researchers may access hierarchical tables that will grant them access to person-level variant data.