Design Principles

To accelerate translational research and the processing of data using the D³b Methodology, new platforms, research environments, and tools are required, which must be built on the following design principles and accelerated impact requirements:

d³b platform design principles

  • Must support discovery and knowledge creation as a non-local, information-driven, and collaborative global process
  • Must maximize the number of information users and improve their secure access to data and information
  • Must support and maximize a diversity of information users with varied interests, specialties, and expertise on behalf a convergence research process
  • Must support and maximize connectivity and community building among such users and provide for the network’s exponential growth
  • Must prioritize frictionless flow of data and information via trusted connections, data federations, and user communities

d³b Platform Technology & tools Requirements

  • Scalable, secure, cloud-based compute and storage infrastructure and associated software platforms
  • Data and information are accessible within a cloud-based computing environment, providing for real-time, shared analysis environment to support global collaboration
  • Platforms for data federations that support NIH best practices and FAIR data principles
  • Large-scale research, clinical, and biomedical information as harmonized genomic and molecular datasets, phenotypes, and metadata
  • Authentication and authorization workflows for NIH and consortium-managed datasets that allow for data access, integration, and data security protocols
  • User training and support resources for a diverse stakeholder community

d³b convergence research nework requirements

Maximized for connectivity, volume, and diversity including patients, clinicians, researchers, government, public and private partnerships, consortia, foundations, and healthcare data stakeholders which manage the use, access, distribution, and security practices of data

Led by the Advanced Data Applications & Platform Technologies (ADAPT) Unit, D³b’s platforms and tools are developed with input from leading collaborators within CHOP and externally, to ensure leading-edge technology is included in the development and versioning of the tools.

Partners include Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s Department of Biomedical and Health Informatics (DBHi), the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR), the University of Chicago, Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU), Children’s National Health System, CHU Sainte Justine, Seven Bridges, and the cBioPortal Consortium comprised of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and Princess Margaret Cancer Centre.

By cross-supporting and developing an array of high-performing data-driven discovery platforms and data-science applications, D³b’s ADAPT Unit has created a real-time, platform-based discovery ecosystem.

This environment allows users to easily move between different analytic views of the same data, perform analysis on the data in real-time with other researchers, and help improve the collaborative development of new tools, data processing workflows, and applications in the future.