# Send the code to the data: a federated analytics network of cancer centres

Source: https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-data-federated-analytics-network/  
OnCo record `idea-data-federated-analytics-network` (Idea). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Hospitals keep their records at home; researchers send in a programme that runs at each hospital and only the summary results come back.

## Summary

OHDSI has shown that a common data model (OMOP) plus federated analysis scripts can run identical studies across hundreds of databases without moving patient-level data. Oncology needs the oncology extension of OMOP (episodes, regimens, staging) completed and a standing network of 50 or more cancer centres with a governance committee that approves study packages, not data transfers. Related efforts include the EHDEN network in Europe and PCORnet in the US.

## Fields

- Kind: Idea
- Last checked: 2026-09-08
- Hypothesis: A standing federated network with pre-approved study templates can answer a comparative effectiveness question on more than 10,000 patients in under six months, at least five times faster than a bespoke pooled analysis.
- Rationale: OHDSI's LEGEND studies have run across tens of millions of records in months. Federated analysis avoids the legal negotiation that is the actual rate-limiting step, because no identifiable data leave the controller.
- Proposed test: Run three pre-registered oncology questions (for example, real-world survival on first-line immunotherapy by performance status) across at least 20 centres; measure time to result and concordance with existing trial or registry estimates.
- Maturity: early-clinical
- Actor: data

## Sources

- OHDSI: https://www.ohdsi.org/
- OMOP Oncology working group: https://ohdsi.github.io/OncologyWG/

## Connected records

- fronts: [AI & Computation](https://onco.cc/fronts/ai-computation/)
- terms: [Real-world evidence](https://onco.cc/terms/real-world-evidence/)
- bottlenecks: [Data silos](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-data-silos/), [Weak real-world evidence and registries](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-real-world-evidence/)
- ideas: [A real-world sequencing analysis within a year of every new approval](https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-data-sequencing-analysis-per-approval/)

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