One of the key types of pre-research activities are evaluations of the feasibility of using PEDSnet for a particular research study, such as assessments of counts of patients meeting study selection criteria or frequency of health and healthcare events. Many of these queries can be done using the PEDSnet cohort discovery tool called Harvest, an open source, self-service tool developed by the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Currently, investigators from PEDSnet sites may request access to Harvest. Interested PEDSnet researchers should contact their site Principal Investigator.
Investigators not residing at a PEDSnet institution may submit a query request in which the PEDSnet Data Coordinating Center will perform the data query. Not every covariate or outcome of interest is stored in the Common Data Model. In some cases, the data elements need to be manipulated to generate counts of events (e.g., distribution in length of stay for hospitalizations for patients with asthma). In these cases, both internal and external investigators may submit a query request so that the PEDSnet Data Science team can work with requester to develop statistical code to run the query.