{"entity":{"id":"idea-data-federated-analytics-network","kind":"idea","name":"Send the code to the data: a federated analytics network of cancer centres","aka":[],"tldr":"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.","asOf":"2026-09-08","links":[{"label":"OHDSI","url":"https://www.ohdsi.org/"},{"label":"OMOP Oncology working group","url":"https://ohdsi.github.io/OncologyWG/"}],"tags":[],"related":[],"cancers":[],"sections":["ai-computation"],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":["real-world-evidence"],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":["b-data-silos","b-real-world-evidence"],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"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.","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","cost":"medium","horizonYears":3},"route":"/ideas/idea-data-federated-analytics-network/","neighbours":{"section":[{"id":"ai-computation","kind":"section","name":"AI & Computation","route":"/fronts/ai-computation/"}],"term":[{"id":"real-world-evidence","kind":"term","name":"Real-world evidence","route":"/terms/real-world-evidence/"}],"bottleneck":[{"id":"b-data-silos","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Data silos","route":"/bottlenecks/b-data-silos/"},{"id":"b-real-world-evidence","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Weak real-world evidence and registries","route":"/bottlenecks/b-real-world-evidence/"}],"idea":[{"id":"idea-data-sequencing-analysis-per-approval","kind":"idea","name":"A real-world sequencing analysis within a year of every new approval","route":"/ideas/idea-data-sequencing-analysis-per-approval/"}]}}