pSCANNER: patient-centered Scalable National Network for Effectiveness Research.

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Clinical Informatics
• Data Science

Background:

• The Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) established PCORnet, a national network of learning healthcare systems.
• pSCANNER is a key component of PCORnet, designed as a stakeholder-governed federated network.
• It integrates data from three major existing networks, encompassing over 21 million patients nationwide.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the structure and function of the patient-centered Scalable National Network for Effectiveness Research (pSCANNER).
• To outline the initial research focus on congestive heart failure, Kawasaki disease, and obesity.
• To highlight the engagement of stakeholders in prioritizing research questions.

Main Methods:

• Utilizes a distributed architecture to integrate data from VA Informatics and Computing Infrastructure (VINCI), University of California Research exchange (UC-ReX), and SCANNER.
• Employs a privacy-preserving distributed computation model with synchronous and asynchronous modes.
• Relies on a common data model for constructing and evaluating distributed multivariate models for statistical analyses.

Main Results:

• The network integrates data from diverse sources, including electronic health records, claims, and health information exchange data.
• A stakeholder-governed approach ensures research priorities align with patient and clinician needs.
• The infrastructure supports privacy-preserving distributed analyses across large, multi-state patient populations.

Conclusions:

• pSCANNER represents a significant advancement in creating a national, federated network for comparative effectiveness research.
• The network's distributed architecture and stakeholder engagement model facilitate robust, patient-centered research.
• It is poised to address critical research questions in areas such as congestive heart failure, Kawasaki disease, and obesity.