From use cases to infrastructure: a cross-institutional survey of priorities in data-driven biomedical research

Federated Ecosystems for Analytics and Standardized Technologies (FEAST) is a modular, cloud-based platform developed through the ARPA-H Biomedical Data Fabric initiative to enable secure, federated analysis of real-world biomedical data. To guide and iteratively refine its modular design, the FEAST team conducted a cross-institutional survey to systematically identify and prioritize research needs related to authorized-access data across diverse biomedical domains. This study presents a structured synthesis of submitted use cases to uncover infrastructure gaps, data integration challenges, and translational opportunities. The results from the survey inform both front-end user-facing functionality and backend data requirements, shaping how the interface supports user interactions, data types, and compliance with security and interoperability standards.

A structured survey form was distributed to researchers affiliated with participating institutions, including DNA-HIVE, The George Washington University (GW-FEAST), Weill Cornell Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Georgetown University, European Bioinformatics Institute, and Kaiser Permanente. Respondents completed standardized fields describing the data types of interest, project goals, analytic methods, and perceived technical barriers. The collected responses were curated and analyzed to identify common needs related to privacy, interoperability, scalability, and workflow reproducibility.

The survey compiled 61 use cases spanning genomics, imaging, clinical phenotyping, EHR-driven analytics, and precision medicine. Common themes included the need for multi-modal data integration, HL7 FHIR-based secure access, federated model training without PII retention, and containerized microservices for scalable deployment. Convergent needs across institutions emphasized consistent demand for FAIR-compliant infrastructure and readiness for real-world data analytics.

The FEAST Use Cases survey provides a cross-sectional view of biomedical informatics priorities grounded in real-world data needs. The findings offer a strategic blueprint for developing federated, privacy-preserving infrastructure to support secure, collaborative, and scalable biomedical research.