West Virginia Clinical and Translational Science Institute: A Statewide Organization Building Research Excellence and Engaging Communities to Improve Health

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ABSTRACT In 2020, the National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C) was established by the National Center for Data to Health (CD2H) in partnership with the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) as a centralized national electronic health record (EHR) data resource for the study of COVID-19 patient outcomes. Over the past 3 years, the West Virginia Clinical and Translational Science Institute (WVCTSI) has leveraged the N3C initiative as a collaborative force across WV. In addition, N3C has served as an impetus to form a collaborative network among Institutional Development Award for Clinical and Translational Research (IDeA- CTR) programs to drive meaningful scientific initiatives to improve outcomes among populations in IDeA states, particularly underrepresented minority and underserved populations. WVCTSI has effectively led 12 IDeA-CTRs in productive N3C collaborations through a variety of activities. For Year 4 of the IDeA-CTR N3C initiative, WVCTSI will continue to provide network-wide infrastructure to drive relevant science and productivity, organizing monthly “All Hands On Deck” meetings and ensuring IDeA-CTR sites complete productivity reporting on a quarterly basis. We will build analytic capacity in several ways: 1) incorporating into Year 4 analyses of external datasets (e.g., Medicare, Medicaid) using privacy-preserving record linkage (PPRL), 2) expanding use of machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) in N3C projects, leveraging existing knowledgeable IDeA-CTR investigators in those areas, and 3) introducing use of spatial analyses to investigate geographic disparities in COVID-19 related outcomes. We will also actively engage investigators in high quality COVID-19 data projects relevant to populations in their respective states by providing support to investigators that includes reviewing and responding to help desk tickets, thereby expediting resolution of all IDeA-CTR-generated tickets. We will also coordinate and conduct relevant symposia and workshops related to novel analytic techniques, ML/AI, and spatial epidemiology. Finally, we will increase frequency of EHR data uploads from WVU to occur monthly.