Common Data Elements (CDEs): Getting More Common All the Time

The NIH HEAL Initiative® is working to increase access to pain and opioid data through a centralized platform–this involves connecting hundreds of datasets and building a unified search for users to derive knowledge from this data. A major challenge is the disparate nature of datasets, with many using their own ‘language’ for their data. The use of Common Data Elements (CDEs) solves this challenge by providing common terms for researchers to describe their data, thus streamlining the process of standardizing data for ingestion into selected repositories and making unrelated datasets easier to compare. Implementation of CDEs allows for unprecedented search across datasets, facilitating new knowledge sharing, treatment discovery, and ultimately, improved patient outcomes for those suffering from pain and opioid use disorders. 

In this webinar, Dr. Laura Wandner, Program Officer in the Office of Pain Policy and Planning at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), will lead a presentation providing an overview of the HEAL Common Data Elements (CDEs) Program and related resources provided by NIH. Dr. Gaurav Vaidya of the HEAL Data Stewardship Group will then lead a presentation delving into the application of CDEs in existing HEAL efforts and providing specific use cases.

Following these presentations, Dr. Kira Bradford of the HEAL Data Stewardship Group will lead a panel discussion and Q&A with Wandner and Vaidya, along with other experts working with CDEs.

Presenter Names and Bios:

• Laura D. Wandner, PhD, is a Program Director in the Office of Pain Policy and Planning at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). She manages programs within the Acute to Chronic Pain Signature Program (A2CPS) and the Helping to End Addiction Long-Term Initiative (HEAL). She also leads the HEAL Initiative’s Common Data Element (CDE) initiative. Wandner, a clinical health psychologist, continues to treat pain patients at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC). Wandner received a BA in psychology and government from Connecticut College and her MS and PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Florida. Wandner completed her internship and postdoctoral training in clinical health psychology at the Connecticut Veterans Administration.
• Gaurav Vaidya, PhD, is a Semantic Web Technologist at RENCI and a software developer for the HEAL Data Stewardship Group, where he has been working on incorporating HEAL CDEs into RENCI’s semantic search engine, Dug. He has previously worked on CDE-related initiatives as part of the National Cancer Institute’s Center for Cancer Data Harmonization. 
• Kathy Sward, PhD, is a Professor in the College of Nursing at the University of Utah. Sward has extensive experience in biomedical and nursing informatics, including terminology/vocabulary management and data/information standards, and the design, development, and implementation of decision-support systems and databases. She has a diverse clinical background including clinical nursing (Med-Surg and ICU), education, and administration. Her current research is in the area of clinical research informatics, including clinical and translational research, the unique aspects of managing research information in special populations, and informatics to support exposure science and sensor monitoring. Sward earned a PhD in Nursing/Informatics from the University of Utah.
• Diane Hartford is a Senior IT Project Manager at the University of Utah Health. She received a master’s degree in Human Development from the University of Utah. She has twenty years of project management experience and is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP). She and her team support the HEAL CDE Program by tracking PI submissions, improving processes, and reviewing CDE measures. Other projects include migrating the NEMSIS data bank and systems from on-premises to the AWS Cloud. She is responsible for budget, procurement of professional services, tracking and reporting the progress of the internal project team and the three external organizations. Additionally, Hartford leads the IT Project Management Office (PMO) at the Data Coordinating Center (DCC).
• Meredith Adams, MD, is an Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology at Wake Forest Baptist Health and the only NIH-funded researcher board certified in Anesthesiology, Pain Medicine, and Clinical Informatics. She is currently funded by the NIH National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (K08) to study opioid response phenotypes for people with low back pain through the Mentored Clinician Scientist program. Additionally, she is a member of the Pain Mechanisms Lab at the Wake Forest School of Medicine and teaches and practices clinical pain medicine at Wake Forest Baptist. Her research interests include novel approaches to pain education and pain biomedical informatics. She received her MD from Tulane University School of Medicine.
• Andrew Siddons, MPH, is a scientific technical writer (contractor) working in the Office of Pain Policy and Planning within the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. He supports the work of the NIH Pain Consortium, the Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee, and the NIH HEAL Initiative, including coordination of the HEAL clinical pain common data elements program.
• Linda Porter, PhD, directs the Office of Pain Policy at NINDS. Porter provides guidance and coordination of the NIH pain research programs through collaboration with the NIH Pain Consortium and supports the activities and programs of the consortium. She also serves as the Designated Federal Official for the Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee, an entity established through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 to address issues relevant to the federal pain research portfolio. In this role, she co-led the National Pain Strategy and the Federal Pain Research Strategy. Porter joined the NINDS in 2003 after serving for 15 years on the faculty at Uniformed Services University.

Tags: public, webinar, freshfair, CDEs, commondataelements, datasharing