Domain Team Creation
Ready to Start a Domain Team?
(1) Check the Domain Team Page to make sure your area of interest is not already represented
(2) Ensure you have registered for Enclave access
(3) Submit a Request at the N3C Support Desk
You will be asked to provide the name and mission of the proposed domain team, the names and profile links for team leaders, the meeting information (including registration URL), and any additional details you want to include (ex. additional members and their roles, supplemental descriptions, etc.).
Please note: Your Domain Team URL and Google Group link cannot be changed once they are established.
(4) Wait to hear back from the Clinical Scenarios subgroup leadership
Team Lead(s) Responsibilities
Team Leaders will be instrumental in facilitating project success (defined by answering COVID research questions, producing publications and/or implementation in healthcare). Leaders will help coordinate activities, provide status updates, lead meetings, and ensure all members are aware of Attribution, Data Download, and other N3C policies. More specific responsibilities are as follows:
Domain Team Lead(s) will be the primary contact(s) for any questions related to team activity both from the public and N3C administration.
Before a member can access the Enclave or other N3C resources, they need to create an Enclave account and go through the registration process. Team leaders should direct all new members to this resource to facilitate their success. Questions on this process can be submitted to the N3C Support Desk.
All Domain Teams should submit a Data Use Request (DUR) within the Enclave to start a project and gain access to the data. Other users of the Enclave may request to join the project, and Domain Team leads should monitor and approve those requests as needed.
Domain Teams should meet as needed (at least monthly). A recurring meeting time is recommended, but not required. The meeting will be publicly announced and open to any N3C members. For more informatiom please see the Calendar and Meeting Guidelines.
Domain teams should communicate primarily via email, the official Google Group mailing list, or through the Domain Team's provided Slack channel. The official Google Drive should be used to store meeting minutes, notes, recordings, and any other team documents.
Additional Suggested Designations & Responsibilities
In addition to the Team Lead(s), the N3C recommends several additional designations for Domain Team members to facilitate more efficient analysis within the Enclave. It is recommended that each team member have a clear role with responsibilities. Members are expected to contribute in some fashion and be willing to have tasks assigned as needed.
The SME will be instrumental in: leading the direction of research and ensuring that it contributes to the specific research field, providing background material/outlines for manuscripts and presentations, helping to answer any clinical questions that arise, and defining concept sets and cohorts using ATLAS or the functionalities in the Enclave.
The Informatics Lead will coordinate with other data analysts/informaticians, work with the Data Analyst/Logic Liaison and Subject Matter Expert (SME) to define derived cohorts using functionalities in the Enclave. This lead will assist other informaticists on the Domain Team with implementing analyses and providing results to the SME in an interpretable format, write up methods and technical cohort descriptions for manuscripts and presentations, support informatics team members stay informed of N3C level data-related policies and procedures.
The Data Analyst or N3C-supported Logic Liaison should familiarize themselves with the tools/features/workflows within the Enclave, enable quality control and validation of relevant data elements/cohorts, implement analytical workflows using appropriate methods, ensure reproducibility of all work, and format and submit data to NCATS for approval according to the N3C Data Download Policy.
Specific skills and best practices to assist this role include:
- Use of Code Workbooks, Core Repos, or Contour to perform analytical tasks within the Enclave
- Import and export code templates to the Knowledge Store within the Enclave
- Construction of appropriate branches, build schedules, and triggers to enable reproducibility of constructed analyses
- Prepare for approval of exported tables and figures through use of reports in the Enclave
The Data Liaison may provide support such as, elicit concept set and data variable definitions needed for domain team projects, facilitate identification or building of concept sets and variables matching the Domain Team research, support analysts working with data/concept sets/variables through representation of data-focused attributes & issues which may impact analyses, assist team members in the reporting of data issues within the Enclave, assist with Enclave training involving data sources and concept sets, and transfer such skills and knowledge to other Domain Team members.
A Data Liaison should have an understanding of primary data sources and attributes impacting data (EMRs, registries, external data sources), prior use/knowledge of coding systems, and controlled vocabularies used in primary data sources such as LOINC, ICD, CPT4, etc., familiarity or experience with implementation(s) of one or more data partner source common data models (PCORnet, ACT/i2b2, TriNetX, OMOP), experience/familiarity with the OMOP the OMOP common data model and vocabulary, knowledge of OHDSI Atlas tooling, and experience working with clinicians and clinical researchers to elicit and implement clinical concepts with available data/coding systems.
With pre-approval, an existing liaison can be assigned to a team if needed.
N3C Supplied Resources
All Domain Teams will be provided with the following:
The Domain Team will be provided with a dedicated webpage linked from the N3C website's Domain Team Landing Page that will include the Domain Team’s mission, headshots, and affiliated institutions of the team's leadership, as well as information about how to join.
The Domain Team will be provided with a Google Drive workspace under the N3C Drive general Domain Team folder to store documents related to research activities.
The Domain Team will be provided with a Google Group to allow members to communicate to the entire team by sending messages to the Google Group Mailing List.
The Domain Team will be provided with a Slack Channel within the CD2H workspace.
If a Domain Team does not have a member suited for the Data Liaison designation (see Suggested Designations for more information), the N3C will provide them with a member to fill this role.
The Domain Team's webpage will display a list of their projects and publications to provide exposure for the teams. (Under construction; not available yet.)
Calendar & Meeting Guidelines
When filling out the Support Desk form to request the creation of a new Domain Team, please include your group's meeting day, time, and link, which will be used to add the event to both the N3C and General Domain Team calendars (viewable to the public). If this information changes, you can submit a request to the N3C support desk to have it updated.
The N3C email address data2health@gmail.com and the Domain Team's Google Group email address should be included to calendar invitations of all scheduled Domain Team meetings. If you have any questions about this process, please visit the N3C support desk.
Domain Teams member must organize their meeting invites and provide the virtual meeting room link (eg, Zoom, Webex, etc.) N3C does not provide virtual meeting technology.
To prevent unwanted guests, Domain Team meetings should be created with "registration required". If this is not a viable option, the N3C Google calendar invite can instead instruct interested participants to email the listserv and request to be added to the calendar invite. If you have any questions about this process, please visit the N3C support desk.
To ensure the security of the data within the N3C Data Enclave, please do not record or capture any Enclave sessions. If you have questions about this requirement, please visit the N3C Support Desk.
- Designate a meeting host
- Email the meeting agenda to the Domain Team's Google Group address prior to the meeting time (i.e., the day before).
- Have a dedicated notetaker record meeting minutes on a rolling agenda/notes document
- Create a header at the top of each notes document to include: -- Leaders(s) name(s) and email address(es) -- Recurring meeting day & time with call-in or meeting link
- Organize regular report-outs at the Clinical Scenarios and Collaborative Analytics meetings
