Data analysis
Data analysis in the ISARIC Clinical Epidemiology Platform
A robust evidence-based outbreak response requires key questions to be identified and answered in a timely manner. Rapid identification of case definitions, risk factors and outcome rates is critical to inform both clinical and policy decision-making. However, a lack of standardised analysis protocols and limited analytical resources can restrict the ability to quickly generate actionable insights.
Our data analysis tools are designed for clinicians and researchers to use and adapt to their research priorities, without needing to share their data, with the following considerations in mind:
- Trust in clinical research is vital.
↳ ISARIC data analysis tools are open-source, well-documented and reproducible.
- Data analysis from scratch is challenging and time-consuming.
↳ ISARIC data analysis tools are built using reusable, modular pipelines.
- Patient-level clinical data cannot always be shared freely, quickly or easily.
↳ ISARIC supports a federated analytics approach to clinical epidemiology in emerging and infectious diseases.
- Software developers and data analysts should receive credit for contributions that benefit wider research community.
↳ ISARIC supports collaborative, community-driven software development and data analysis.
ISARIC maintains openly-available source code for data analysis, on the software development platform GitHub. Users can make their own copy of this source code, and can implement additional analyses or modelling within their local version of the code.
ISARIC supports the development of new methods and the inclusion of new research questions, through training, documentation and collaborations. We encourage the source code for novel analyses or methods to be shared with us, allowing its integration into the central ISARIC source code. This benefits both the developer, who receives credit or citation for their contribution to the platform, and the wider research community, who can reuse these methods in their own studies.
VERTEX (Visual Evidence & Research Tool for EXploration)
ISARIC VERTEX is a web-based dashboard for data analysis and visualisation, with a focus on clinical characterisation of patients during their observation period. It can:
- Prepare, process and summarise patient-level or site-level data into aggregated outputs.
- Perform a range of descriptive analysis and statistical modelling, across any set of variables specified by the user.
- Display these information in a series of interactive and easily-accesible figures and tables. Users can filter these by key variables (e.g. country, gender, age), and hover their mouse over each figure or table for additional information.
VERTEX can be used as a standalone tool for any dataset that describes the clinical epidemiology of an outbreak, after suitable pre-processing. However, it performs best for data captured using our tools for Case Report Forms: ISARIC ARC and ISARIC BRIDGE.
For more information about VERTEX and how it processes and visualises data, please refer to the ISARIC VERTEX GitHub repository, our Getting Started with VERTEX Guide, and our How to Create a VERTEX Insight Panel Guide. If you encounter any issues or have suggestions for improvements, we encourage you to submit an issue on the ISARIC VERTEX GitHub repository or to reach out to us via email at: data@isaric.org.
ISARICResearch GitHub – VERTEX
ISARICResearch GitHub – VERTEX Submitting an issue