Accelerating Precision Oncology Discovery with an Integrated Cancer Data Resource

Project Description Narrative:

This project will establish the Integrated Cancer Data Resource (ICDR), a joint program between the MCW Cancer Center (MCW CC) and the Clinical and Translational Science Institute of Southeast Wisconsin (CTSI). Through leveraging the expertise of these two programs, the ICDR will provide the support necessary to help cancer investigators obtain the real-world data that is necessary to advance precision oncology efforts.

Real-world data, defined as information that is collected during the course of routine care for patients in a real-world clinical setting, includes multiple sources such as claims data, registries, and electronic health records. The ability to harness these data sources and generate real-world knowledge is challenged by the pace of data generation, disparate data types and sources, and legacy data systems. Without the correct support and tools, investigators often rely on manually obtaining the same data that already exists in other electronic sources for research and discovery. Given the importance of integrating multiple sources of data to personalize treatment—a key aspect of precision oncology—the overarching objective of the proposed project is to centralize cancer data efforts to support precision oncology research and discovery.

The researchers’ long-term goal is to establish a new programmatic standard for using real-world data to generate real-world knowledge that can be expanded campus and statewide.