Data Core is an organization within the UCSF Department of Medicine that provides electronic health record data acquisition and analysis as a service to faculty members. Data Core has been active since November 2016 and has contributed to peer-reviewed manuscripts, grant applications, and clinical quality improvement projects. The group consists of seven data analysts led by physician-informaticists Nader Najafi, MD, MAS and Logan Pierce, MD. Data Core prioritizes forming longitudinal partnerships with groups of faculty, such as departments of divisions. The group is funded primarily by research grants that utilize its services. While the Data Core primarily serves faculty members at UCSF, the group also has experience collaborating with outside institutions, including Stanford, UCLA, Harvard, and the University of Minnesota.
Data Core is skilled at using the Structured Query Language (SQL) to extract data from the database behind the UCSF EHR. Analysts are also skilled at using the R programming language to process this raw data into a final form ready for statistical analysis. The team has expertise using the Tableau data visualization software to create tables, figures, and operational dashboards. All datasets, processing code, visualizations, and other output files produced by the Data Core are stored on a secured, HIPAA-compliant server behind the UCSF campus firewall.
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