News

Keep up with the latest news from the NCI Center for Biomedical Informatics and Information Technology (CBIIT) and the data science communities.

NIH is seeking comments and suggestions on the NIH-Wide Strategic Plan for COVID-19 Research. The plan will provide a framework for accelerating research to address this global pandemic.

NIH has released the updated Data Management and Sharing Policy. All NCI grantees will be required to submit a data sharing plan regardless of their funding level or mechanism. The policy will go into effect beginning January 25, 2023.

NIH recently released a notice encouraging NIH-supported clinical programs and researchers to adopt and use U.S. Core Data for Interoperability (USCDI) standards. USCDI classifications will ensure clinical data adhere to a unified standard, allowing researchers to more easily compare different data sets and enabling more in-depth analysis to further scientific discovery.

CBIIT Director Dr. Tony Kerlavage participated in the National Cancer Policy Forum's workshop "Applying Big Data to Address the Social Determinants of Health in Oncology." The proceedings, which were recently published, illustrate how Dr. Kerlavage and other leading experts are working to identify novel ways to collect, curate, analyze, and use social determinants of health (SDOH) data to address health disparities related to cancer research and outcomes.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), in collaboration with the NIH, FDA, VA, and other stakeholders, developed the “National Health IT Priorities for Research: A Policy and Development Agenda.” The Agenda articulates a vision of a health IT infrastructure that supports alignment between the clinical and research ecosystems allowing research to happen more quickly and effectively. Collaborators from each of these agencies, including CBIIT Director, Dr. Tony Kerlavage, describe the importance of this comprehensive and coordinated action in a newly published article, “Leveraging the Health Information Technology (IT) Infrastructure to Advance Federal Research Priorities.”