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Building a collaborative ecosystem across the IDeA-CTR networks in response to a public health emergency

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 July 2025

A. Jerrod Anzalone*
Affiliation:
University of Nebraska Medical Center, Great Plains IDeA-CTR, Omaha, NE, USA
Sharon Patrick
Affiliation:
West Virginia University, West Virginia Clinical and Translational Science Institute, Morgantown, WV, USA
Amber Abel
Affiliation:
West Virginia University, West Virginia Clinical and Translational Science Institute, Morgantown, WV, USA
Brad Price
Affiliation:
West Virginia University, West Virginia Clinical and Translational Science Institute, Morgantown, WV, USA
Elizabeth Reisher
Affiliation:
University of Nebraska Medical Center, Great Plains IDeA-CTR, Omaha, NE, USA
Kent Ripplinger
Affiliation:
University of North Dakota, Translational Science Engaging North Dakota Program, Grand Forks, ND, USA
Mary Emmett
Affiliation:
CAMC Health System, West Virginia Clinical and Translational Science Institute, Charleston, WV, USA
Ronald Horswell
Affiliation:
Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Louisiana Clinical and Translational Science Center, Baton Rouge, LA, USA
San Chu
Affiliation:
Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Louisiana Clinical and Translational Science Center, Baton Rouge, LA, USA
William B. Hillegass
Affiliation:
University of Mississippi Medical Center, Mississippi Center for Clinical and Translational Research, Jackson, MS, USA
Francisco S. Sy
Affiliation:
University of Nevada Las Vegas, Mountain West Clinical and Translational Research Infrastructure Network, Las Vegas, NV, USA
Brian Melancon
Affiliation:
Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Louisiana Clinical and Translational Science Center, Baton Rouge, LA, USA
H. Timothy Bunnell
Affiliation:
Nemours Children’s Health, ACCEL – Delaware Center for Translational Research, Wilmington, DE, USA
Lucio Miele
Affiliation:
Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, Louisiana Clinical and Translational Science Center, New Orleans, LA, USA
Mary Helen Mays
Affiliation:
University of Puerto Rico, the Hispanic Alliance for Clinical and Hispanic Research, San Juan, PR, USA
Joseph Keawe‘aimoku Kaholokula
Affiliation:
University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Center for Pacific Innovations, Knowledge and Opportunities, Honolulu, HI, USA
Elizabeth S. Chen
Affiliation:
Brown University, Advance Rhode Island Clinical and Translational Research, Providence, RI, USA
Karen M. Crowley
Affiliation:
Brown University, Advance Rhode Island Clinical and Translational Research, Providence, RI, USA
Indra Neil Sarkar
Affiliation:
Brown University, Advance Rhode Island Clinical and Translational Research, Providence, RI, USA
Susan L. Santangelo
Affiliation:
Tufts University School of Medicine, MaineHealth Institute for Research, Northern New England Clinical and Translational Research Network, Scarborough, ME, USA
Clifford J. Rosen
Affiliation:
Tufts University School of Medicine, MaineHealth Institute for Research, Northern New England Clinical and Translational Research Network, Scarborough, ME, USA
Jeremy Harper
Affiliation:
Owl Health Works, LLC, Indianapolis, IN, USA
David Bard
Affiliation:
University of Oklahoma Health Sciences, Oklahoma Shared Clinical and Translational Resources, Oklahoma City, OK, USA
William Beasley
Affiliation:
University of Oklahoma Health Sciences, Oklahoma Shared Clinical and Translational Resources, Oklahoma City, OK, USA
Sally L. Hodder
Affiliation:
West Virginia University, West Virginia Clinical and Translational Science Institute, Morgantown, WV, USA
*
Corresponding author: A.J. Anzalone; Email: alfred.anzalone@unmc.edu
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Abstract

Introduction:

The urgency and scale of the COVID-19 pandemic demanded a coordinated response from public health agencies and the biomedical research community. The National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C) was established as a centralized enclave in 2020 to support the study of COVID-19 across the U.S. The Institutional Development Award for Clinical and Translational Research (IDeA-CTR) centers enhanced N3C’s national response by bringing representation from rural and medically underserved communities. This improved the representation of our diverse populations in the N3C Enclave and its use for research by IDeA-state investigators.

Methods:

We developed an organizational structure across the IDeA-CTRs to improve research productivity in resource-challenged areas of the U.S. This socio-technical ecosystem, informed by community input, included a governance committee and two workstreams. The operations workstream focused on data management and regulatory compliance, while the navigation, education, analysis, and training (NEAT) workstream supported educational and analytical activities for the N3C Enclave.

Results:

Our collaborative approach led to participation by 12 IDeA-CTRs, representing over 400 investigators from 23 sites. The shared governance, investigator engagement, and resource pooling enhanced research productivity and engagement with researchers across IDeA states. Participation in this IDeA-CTR N3C consortium enhanced informatics research capacity and collaboration across the IDeA-CTRs for participating networks.

Conclusions:

This collaborative model provides a roadmap and framework for future efforts among IDeA-CTRs and other academic partnerships. The socio-technical ecosystem fostered collectivism and team science, enabling the consortium to achieve far more than isolated efforts could, offering valuable insights for interdisciplinary research across geographically dispersed communities.

Information

Type
Research Article
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Association for Clinical and Translational Science
Figure 0

Figure 1. IDeA-CTR networks participating in N3C, 2020-2023. Includes the IDeA-CTR network sites participating in N3C in phases 1 (circle) and 2 (triangle). IDeA states are highlighted in blue. 14 total IDeA-CTR-associated sites participated in the network from 12 IDeA-CTR networks.

Figure 1

Table 1. Steps required to establish and maintain an enterprise data warehouse for research

Figure 2

Figure 2. IDeA-CTR N3C network consortium organizational structure. Describes the organizational structure of the IDeA-CTR N3C consortium (right) and illustrates its relationship to the existing community and governance structures in N3C (left). Many IDeA-CTR investigators are participating in N3C workstreams and domain teams.

Figure 3

Figure 3. Investigator workflow through the NEAT workstream. Details the workflow through which an IDeA-CTR investigator initiates a project and how it is processed through the navigation, education, analysis, and training (NEAT) workstream through project completion. This process was initiated early in the IDeA-CTR N3C consortium formation to allow investigators from across organizations to pool resources and collaborate across the networks.

Figure 4

Table 2. Impact of IDeA-CTR consortium on capacity and collaboration

Figure 5

Figure 4. IDeA-CTR N3C consortium collaboration map. shows network collaboration among the IDeA-CTR N3C consortium. IDeA states are dark grey, and non-IDeA states are light grey. This map contains all IDeA-CTR-affiliated sites (N = 23) with members participating in N3C (N = 401). Each bubble’s size and color intensity represent the relative number of members at each site, with larger and more intensely colored bubbles indicating more participants.

Figure 6

Figure 5. Scope of patient populations, outcomes, and exposures in 29 IDeA-CTR N3C consortium studies, published 2021–2023. shows the scope of 29 IDeA-CTR N3C consortium studies, showcasing some of the priorities addressed in studies published from 2021–2023. The left axis represents A) key patient populations, such as rural residents and immunocompromised patients. The middle axis highlights B) major outcomes, including mortality and breakthrough infections, while the right axis shows C) primary exposures like SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination. The plot illustrates how these studies address health disparities and key challenges in IDeA states. The studies and thematic review included in this alluvial plot are available in supplemental Table 3.

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