Using Flatiron

What is Flatiron?

Flatiron is a technology platform that provides real-world clinical data collected from the electronic health records (EHRs) used by cancer care providers across the United States. Flatiron data is disease-specific, real-world datasets that enable researchers to monitor and analyze key aspects of the patient journey. These longitudinal, de-identified data sets are sourced from electronic health records (EHRs) deployed at Flatiron’s nationwide network of community oncology practices and academic cancer centers and deliver a wide pool of clinical data including patient demographics, treatment, and clinical outcomes.

Data for 22 diseases is available, including solid tumor clinico-genomic database cohorts that are linked with Foundation Medicine NGS testing. Access to all datasets are via a proposal-based process via Flatiron Explore.

CU Cancer Center investigators can access de-identified data collected on over 3.5 million patients. Curated data sets are made available following submission and approval of a project proposal.

Flatiron fees

The Cancer Center is supporting the cost of the Flatiron platform, and in partnership with UCHealth is supporting the necessary infrastructure to include UCHealth EMR data into the Flatiron data sets. Individual research projects may incur fees for biostatistician support. The PI will be responsible for any biostatistics fees.

Please visit the Biostatistics and Bioinformatics shared resources page for additional information or email them at CCBiostatistics@cuanschutz.edu.

Joint Steering Committee (JSC)

The Flatiron - UCCC Colorado JSC governs the partnerships between our organizations, oversees key decisions and meets regularly to align on priorities and opportunities. The JSC is made up of CU Cancer Center physician leaders and Flatiron Health representatives.

They champion Flatiron to the larger Cancer Center community, review and approve proposed projects, and ensure resources are allocated to support research using the Flatiron data sets.

Step 1: Getting started

Please utilize one of the three ways listed below to request access to Explore:

• Submit this form.
• E-mail the Program Coordinator, Jessica Figura).
• Investigators can refer other investigators directly on Explore. There is a drop-down menu to do so on the top right corner of the page. Please e-mail the Program Coordinator when you refer another investigator to Explore.

Once you have access to Explore, your first step will be to access and review the available data sets and determine feasibility of a potential proposal.

Step 2: Ready to submit a proposal?

Once you have determined the feasibility of a potential proposal, you are ready to begin drafting your proposal.

Please submit the Inquiry Form to start the initial process or e-mail the UCCC Flatiron Program Coordinator, Jessica Figura.

The goal of the proposal template is to provide sufficient detail to inform early exploration of project feasibility by clearly outlining the target cohorts, data variables, and high-level analytic plan.

This template is to be completed by academic investigators interested in completing a research project using a nationwide electronic health record-derived dataset from Flatiron Health.

When the investigator is ready to submit a proposal, please fill out the Academic Research Proposal Template.

Please e-mail this template to the UCCC Flatiron Program Coordinator, Jessica Figura, prior to submission.