N3C
National Clinical Cohort Collaborative (N3C Clinical)
The National Clinical Cohort Collaborative (N3C), formerly known as the National COVID Cohort Collaborative, represents one of the largest, most secure clinical data resources for accelerating research on COVID-19. Built from the collaboration among the NCATS-supported Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Program hubs, N3C Clinical will house multiple virtual domain-specific research enclaves (N3C Cancer, N3C Renal, N3C Education, and N3C Covid). These secure enclaves will provide researchers with high-quality, de-identified linked datasets to explore critical clinical questions while ensuring data privacy and integrity, enabling data-driven translational research and team science.
The N3C enclaves provide a powerful analytics platform and tool set for online discovery, visualization and collaboration. The Data Set and Analytical capacity of the N3C Data Enclaves will continue to grow and improve over time.
The University of Utah and its Researchers can access the N3C Clinical enclaves through an Institutional Data Use Agreement (DUA) with the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS). Click here for a list of institutions authorized by the NCATS.
N3C Domain Teams
N3C is a collaborative effort, researchers would work within Domain Teams. Domain Teams enable researchers with shared interests to analyze data within the N3C Data Enclaves and collaborate more efficiently in a team science environment. N3C encourages researchers of all levels to join a Domain Team that represents their interests, or to suggest new clinical areas to explore. To belong to a Domain Team, Researchers must be part of a University of Utah Institutional Review Board (IRB) approved project.
For help on finding a Domain Team, or what to do if no Domain Team aligns with your interest and every other N3C related questions, contact:
How to Access N3C
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Researchers need to register with N3C. researchers can request an N3C Data Enclave account. Upon approval, researchers will receive an email with directions for signing into their N3C Data Enclave account.
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Following the directions provided in the account creation email, researchers need to log into the N3C Data Enclave to access their account and resources for learning about using the N3C Data Enclave. Having an N3C Data Enclave account does not on its own enable access to the N3C data, however.
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The N3C Data Enclave is hosted by NCATS, and all researchers must complete the “Information Security and Information Management Training” course, which can be accessed at NIH’s information security training website, before submitting a Data Use Request. It will take approximately 60-90 minutes to complete the entire course. Users should save evidence of completion for their records (a screenshot or copy of the certificate of completion). Researchers who intend to request access to de-identified data or to the Limited Data Set also must have completed their home institution’s human subjects research training requirements. Researchers will be required to provide the date they completed training in their Data Use Request.
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After satisfying the training requirements, researchers must fill out and submit a Data Use Request through the N3C Data Enclave. Researchers will need to provide a project title, a public research statement, a description of their research project plan, the level of data they intend to access and other information. Researchers also must read and attest to the DUA and to the N3C Data User Code of Conduct. If requesting access to the Limited Data Set, researchers will need to provide a copy of their institution’s Human Research Protection Program IRB determination letter.
After a researcher submits a Data Use Request, it will be reviewed by the N3C Data Access Committee (DAC). The DAC is composed of federal staff from NIH and is responsible for reviewing and approving all Data Use Requests. Researchers will receive a DAC determination by email and, if approved, instructions for accessing the data. Data Use Requests will be effective for one year from the date access is granted and will be renewable.
For additional resources, visit these resources from the NCATS-supported National Center for Data to Health:
Data Types
The N3C systematically and regularly collects data derived from the electronic health records of people who were tested for COVID-19 or who had related symptoms, as well as data from individuals infected with pathogens that can support comparative studies, such as SARS 1, MERS, and H1N1. The data set includes such information as demographics, symptoms, lab test results, procedures, medications, medical conditions, physical measurements, and more. N3C Clinical will expand data collection and access to broaden the clinical domains included in datasets.
N3C data is accessed through participation in a topic specific data Enclave made up of investigators with similar research questions. Researchers can either start a new project or join an existing one.
Data can be acquired in three formats:
- Limited data sets containing select PHI (service date and zip code),
- Deidentified data sets with shifted dates, and
- Synthetic datasets that are derived from original data.
Synthetic Data
A Synthetic Data Set consists of data that are computationally derived from the Limited Dataset and that resemble patient information statistically but are not actual patient data.
Access to synthetic data requires creation of an N3C Data Enclave account, a signed Data Use Agreement (DUA), and submission of a data use request (DUR).
For other data types and their requirements click here N3C Data Overview.