Data Exchange Core

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Providing Researchers Access to Data Resources

The Data Exchange Core provides a prioritized, resource-effective process for Sanford Health researchers and external collaborators to access healthcare data for their research needs.

The mission of the Core is to effectively analyze health care data to improve health services delivery and patient outcomes.

The use of electronic health records (EHR) data empowers researchers to engage in translational, sustainable, and transdisciplinary research that can influence patient health outcomes. The Core supports activities preparatory to research, research studies, and quality improvement projects that have an EHR focus.

The team assists Sanford researchers and external collaborators with data access while providing guidance on legal, regulatory, and privacy regulations for de-identified and protected health information (PHI).

The Center for Health Outcomes and Population Research CoBRE directly supports the Data Exchange Core.

The Data Exchange provides the following services:

  • Honest broker provides access to Electronic Health Record (EHR) data including aggregate, de-identified, and limited data sets
  • Properly de-identify data by generating unique, confidential keys which allows the addition of more study data in the future, if necessary
  • Training in the use of on-demand tools (i.e. EPIC’s SlicerDicer)
  • Management of submissions for data access committee approval(s) as needed
  • Provide IRB and compliance assistance (in partnership with clinical research) for all EHR related research studies
  • Development of collaboration agreements between Sanford investigators and external collaborators

Data Exchange Request Form

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Meet the Team

Chun-Hung Chan, PhD

Core Director

Dr. Chun-Hung Chan obtained his Ph.D. in developmental neurobiology from University College London and conducted postdoctoral work at the University of Rochester.

He serves as the Director of the Sanford Biobank, providing access to samples and associated EMR data for research.

In addition, he is the site PI for the National Cancer Institute’s Connect Study which seeks to enroll participants in a long-term cohort study involving biological samples, self-reported surveys, and EMR data to support cancer epidemiology studies.

Dr. Chan is also a key stakeholder in the implementation of the OMOP common data model at Sanford and serves on the enterprise data governance, AI oversight, and Research data governance committees.

John A. McMillin

Senior Report Developer, Enterprise Data and Analytics

John A. McMillin is the Enterprise Data and Analytics contact for research.  He assists with retrieving data from both the Clarity database,  as well as other databases,  in response to requests from researchers.

He is Epic certified in the Clinical Data Model,  and has familiarity with a variety of databases and applications utilized by Sanford.

Katie Dehne

Project Manager

Katie Dehne is responsible for planning, tracking, and overseeing the data exchange requests that are submitted. She also assists the Honest Broker as well as the requestors with coordinating meetings and finding the right resources and people to help complete the data request.

Katie graduated from SDSU with a B.S. in Biology and is currently working towards a Masters in Project Management at the Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota.

Before joining Sanford Research she held positions in Quality Control at Baxter International Inc. and worked as a clinical research coordinator as well as a research protocol specialist at the Mayo Clinic.

Collin Bettinger, BS

Research Informatics Analyst

Collin graduated from University of Sioux Falls with a B.S in Computer Science and plans to pursue a Master’s Degree in Data Science. Before joining Sanford Research, Collin held a position as a Quality Assurance Specialist in Sanford IT working on various software development projects throughout the Sanford Health network.