BTDA

The Brain Tumour Data Accelerator is an exciting project that bring together the scale and reputation of the Brain Tumour Charity with the experience and skills of the Computational Oncology Group.

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The aim is to assemble a large, rich, linked dataset of imaging, pathology, treatment, and outcomes from >1000 adult patients with brain tumours, to keep that data in a safe place, and make it accessible to researchers from the UK and around the world to accelerate computational approaches to brain tumour research.

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Working with TBTC, we spent a long time optimising the project design and research approvals. Our eventual approach has been to ensure that TBTC is the project sponsor, and holds the data in a Trusted Research Environment (TRE). TBTC then has research contracts with a number of different NHS centres, who provide pseudonymised data to the TBTC TRE. Access to the TRE is governed by a Data Access Board, hosted by TBTC.

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We are providing input on research approvals (IRAS, REC), research costings and contracts, PPI expertise, and designing and testing the data QA pipelines with the TRE, as well as building the first pilot applications to run in the TRE.