Overview
The Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (ICTR) Health Informatics Core (HIC) empowers clinical and translational researchers with a comprehensive suite of resources, services, and training. We support investigators navigating today's data-driven research landscape by providing:
- Accessible tools and expertise for cohort discovery and electronic health record (EHR) data retrieval.
- Support for clinical decision making, implementation science, and comparative effectiveness research.
- Streamlined data management and clinical trial support, including data collection and electronic consent tools.
- Cutting-edge expertise in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and predictive modeling.
- Grant writing and proposal development assistance.
Health Informatic Core Services
The HIC provides clinical and translational researchers at Einstein and Montefiore with a wide range of informatics services including:
- Multi-modal Clinical Data Extraction: Identify and gather a comprehensive patient view for advanced research across various data sources, including electronic health records (EHR), imaging, clinical notes, sociodemographic factors, and more.
- Cohort Identification and Patient Matching: Leverage Einstein-Atlas, a self-service analytics platform, to define cohorts, match patients, conduct feasibility studies, prepare for research, and enable multi-institutional collaborations. Einstein-Atlas protects patient privacy while facilitating data exploration, visualization, and providing high-quality clinical data for extraction.
- Natural Language Processing and Clinical Text Analysis: Use a robust platform to explore various de-identified clinical documents and notes to identify patients for research. This platform integrates with Einstein-Atlas for cohort studies and allows data extraction from notes.
- Research and Trial Recruitment: Utilize an automated system to connect with potential participants for clinical trials. This system combines various methods to effectively enroll patients.
- Biorepository Integration: Integrate biological specimens with associated clinical data. This allows researchers to identify additional specimens suitable for research.
- Departmental Data Marts: Empower departments and teams with analysis-ready data marts, allowing for collaborative research, data science projects, and improvement initiatives.
- Predictive Modeling and AI/ML: Consult, develop, and deploy predictive models and AI/ML technology for clinical decision support, automation, and quality improvement.
- Large Language Model (LLM) Applications: Apply generative Artificial Intelligence ) and advanced transformer technologies for research and healthcare tasks while protecting patient privacy.
- Open Science Collaboration: Participate in research consortia and national networks to access high-quality shared datasets and accelerate research.
- Real-World Evidence Training: Learn to design and conduct large-scale real-world evidence studies using the latest methods in clinical informatics, health data analytics, and epidemiology.
- Pragmatic Clinical Trials: Design and implement large-scale clinical research studies in real-world settings using real-world data and multi-institutional collaboration.
Consultations and Trainings
Submit a request here.
If you are unsure of which resources to request or need more information, schedule a consultation by contacting us at HIC-help@einsteinmed.edu.
Cohort Discovery
ATLAS allows Einstein and Montefiore researchers to create and analyze cohorts using clinical data from the Epic EHR system in a self-service manner, free of charge. Users can also upload existing cohorts to ATLAS to perform cohort analytics or participate in multi-institutional cohort collaboratives in a secure and HIPAA compliant manner.
ATLAS Self-Service functions:
- Cohort definition and computable phenotype queries
- Customizable analysis ready data extraction for data science and statistical analysis
- Incident rates analysis
- Data quality assessments
For assistance and training, please refer to the resources below:
REQUEST SERVICES HERE
Training Videos
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Data Management Services
- Custom cohort data extraction
- Data management and quality assessment pipelines
- Advanced informatics and analytics support (natural language processing, computable phenotyping, data harmonization and transformation, terminology services)
- Data access and extraction from ECGs, MRIs, other imaging modalities, etc.
- Integration of multimodal data sets including -omics and social determinants of health data with clinical data from Montefiore EHR
REQUEST SERVICES HERE
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Data Consortia and Multi-institutional Network
Einstein and Montefiore participate in data and knowledge exchange collaborations. Research networks provide opportunities for research collaboration, access to high quality research datasets, and participation in scientific and methodological working groups:
- INSIGHT Clinical Research Network
The INSIGHT Clinical Research Network is supported by Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to create an accessible, sustainable, scalable clinical data network to facilitate patient-centered research, learning healthcare systems, and PCORnet, a national research network. INSIGHT Network brings together Albert Einstein School of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center, Columbia University and Weill Cornell Medicine/New York-Presbyterian Hospital, lcahn School of Medicine/Mount Sinai Health System, and New York University School of Medicine/Langone Medical Center. The central data repository enables researchers to perform data queries on >15 million unique patients and offers access to 11 years of longitudinal, high-quality, research-ready data.
- National Covid Cohort Collaborative (N3C)
The N3C is a partnership among the NCATS-supported CTSA Program hubs, the National Center for Data to Health (CD2H), and distributed clinical data networks (PCORNet, OHDSI, ACT, TriNetX) with overall stewardship by NCATS. Collaborators contribute and use COVID‑19 clinical data to answer critical research questions to address the pandemic. The secure platform includes data from nearly 6 million cases of COVID-19. Additional information can be found at https://covid.cd2h.org
- Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER)
Funded by the NIH the RECOVER initiative was created to learn about the long-term effects of COVID. The HIC submits Montefiore data to this consortium, which allows researchers to conduct multi-centered research from a larger number of patients. Data includes demographics, visit information, diagnosis information, drugs, vitals, and procedures. Additional information can be found at https://recovercovid.org/
REQUEST SERVICES HERE
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Self-Service Data Collection and eConsent via REDCap
REDCap is a secure web platform for building and managing online databases and surveys. REDCap provides automated export procedures for seamless data downloads to Excel and common statistical packages (SPSS, SAS, Stata, R), as well as a built-in project calendar, scheduling module, ad hoc reporting tools, and advanced features, such as branching logic, file uploading, and calculated fields.
- Design and deploy sophisticated data collection instruments (e.g., case report forms, surveys)
- Schedule and coordinate data entry and data collection events
- Data quality controls and monitoring
- Collaborate and participate in multi-institutional data collection and exchange projects in a secure and HIPAA compliant manner
- Send secure and context appropriate messages and communications via text, voice, and email messages (TwilioTM Service)
- Electronic consent (eConsent) is a platform for consenting research participants using a computer-based consent form in lieu of traditional paper documentation
- For REDCap training resources, please refer to the information below:
REQUEST SERVICES HERE
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Clinical Trial Recruitment Services via TwilioTM
This service allows construction of culturally sensitive messages to be automatically scheduled and communicated with research participants, in a secure and HIPAA compliant environment, after authorization to contact and recruit patients for research is obtained from providers. The service coordinates between patient’s clinical appointments, eligibility and recruitment protocols, low/high touch recruitment strategies, and provides just-in-time information for research coordinators to effectively communicate, consent and recruit participants to clinical studies via efficient use of text, voice, and email messages.
- Eligibility screening for recruitment via computable phenotyping
- Automated communication with primary care provider (PCP) to obtain permission to contact patients for recruitment
- Appointment matching through Epic Integration to identify PCP and clinical appointments
- Low/high touch contacting using TwilioTM secured messaging (text, voice, emails messages)
- E-consenting and recruitment services via REDCap integration
Twilio and RedCap Guide for Einstein Montefiore Users
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REDCap eConsent
eConsent for research at Einstein-Montefiore is available using REDCap. You can use REDCap to conduct and record consent for remote participants, or for participants in clinic on tablets or other touchscreen devices. Study teams can add relevant photos, videos, or other media to facilitate participant understanding of study-related procedures. Participants can sign the consent form electronically and submit it to the study team. Once the consent form is submitted, the participant receives an email that includes a PDF attachment with a copy of their signed consent form. The IRB will review the use of eConsent on a study- by- study basis to ensure the informed consent process is appropriate for the study population, level of risk, and protocol.
REQUEST SERVICES HERE
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Velos
The Velos Clinical Trial Management System streamlines, integrates, and manages all clinical research activities at Einstein-Montefiore. The system ensures regulatory compliance, improves quality of data, and streamlines administrative and financial management of the studies, sponsors, and patients by providing comprehensive protocol management, patient recruitment, coordination and calendaring, regulatory reporting, adverse event management and reporting, quality assurance reporting, and consolidated invoicing and financial management.
User access can be requested after training is completed. Click here for more information on training.
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Coalition for Health AI (CHAI)
The Coalition for Health AI (CHAI) is a trustworthy & responsible AI network part of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) run by the US Dept of Commerce.
VIEW RESOURCE HERE
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Research Informatics Pricing Model
We offer several free, user-friendly platforms and services to help you analyze your research data:
- Atlas: Create groups of patients (cohorts) and analyze observational data.
- ElasTex NLP (Natural Language Processing): Extract insights from text-based medical records using natural language processing.
- Clinical Research Networks: Free data retrieval from networks like INSIGHT, CRN, N3C, and RECOVER.
Want More Help? We've Got Options!
- REDCap Project Setup: Get started with REDCap for a one-time fee of $1000 (departments can bulk purchase licenses).
- Build surveys, collect data, and manage your studies easily.
- Grant & Contract Support: We offer free consultations and data infrastructure planning to help you with grant applications. An appropriate budget will be allocated from the grant for ongoing support.
- Custom Research Services: Need tailored data analysis, patient recruitment, or machine learning? Our experts are available for an hourly rate of $150. Examples include:
- Advanced data management (imaging, non-traditional datasets)
- EMR cohort extraction and computable phenotypes
- Patient screening and trial recruitment
- Natural Language Processing
- AI/Machine Learning
- Real-time analytics and clinical decision support
- Software development (mobile health apps)
- Department Sponsorship: If you're affiliated with a department, inquire about free research support through our Health Informatics Core (HIC) program.
- ICTR Sponsored Studies: Studies funded by the Institute (e.g., Fellowships, Pilot Projects) qualify for free informatics support.
We're here to empower your research! Feel free to reach out to HIC-Help@einsteinmed.edu with any questions.
Leadership
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![Parsa Mirhaji, M.D., Ph.D.]()
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![Pavel Goriacko, Pharm.D., M.P.H.]()
Pavel Goriacko, Pharm.D., M.P.H.
Co-Director, Health Informatics Core
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![Selvin Soby]()
Selvin Soby, Pharm.D.
Director, Informatics & Health Data Analytics
