Cohort Development and Analysis Toolkit (CDAT)

We propose to design and develop a Cohort Development and Analysis Toolkit (CDAT) that will assist clinicians, practice administrators and public health professionals in comparing the effectiveness of different clinical practices, including preventive and treatment modalities. The overall goal of CDAT is to facilitate comparative effectiveness research and evidence-based practice without the necessity for advanced expertise in biostatistics and databases. The proposed CDAT will in addition provide a mechanism for the implementation of findings to improve practice and quality of care directly to the study population. The proposed CDAT will allow clinicians, practice administrators, preventive medicine professionals and Quality Improvement (QI) personnel to: (1) Quickly and efficiently define cohorts and conduct scientific and QI studies to compare and evaluate their morbidity and mortality, (2) Retrieve and recapitulate findings in the literature based on study goals, and (3) Collaborate and share results with stakeholders by publishing the data mining models, analysis results, and cohort models in a secure portal and facilitate re-use. Business applications of CDAT include chronic disease management, comparative health effectiveness research, design, evaluation and monitoring of practice-based quality improvement programs and interventions, and areas of opportunity like mortality and readmission, utilization, length of stay, avoidable delays, etc.