Evolve to Next-Gen Act (ENACT)

University of Minnesota clinical researchers and study teams can now query over 150 million patient records through the ENACT Network (formerly the Accrual to Clinical Trials (ACT) Network) for discovery, exploration, and validation of patient cohorts for investigator-initiated multi-site or single-site clinical trials.

Gain access

Access to the ENACT Network on i2b2 requires registration. Researchers and study teams interested in querying data across the ENACT Network, should email [email protected].

BPIC is offers individual training sessions by request and for groups on how to use the tool. There's also a training website developed by the ENACT Network CTSA coordinating hub.

Costs

There is no cost to the researcher, study team, or department to use the tool.

Benefits of cohort discovery and exploration

Help generate hypotheses
Determine recruitment feasibility and patient identification
Funding proposals and IRB submissions
Helps accelerate clinical trials by prospectively refining study design and clinical protocols

Additionally, the ENACT Network can be used to help identify potential partner sites for multi-site studies; though an established collaborator at another site is not necessary to use the tool for cohort discovery.

"Grant and IRB applications that show reviewers the PI has done the necessary legwork to discover the patient population size with parameters of interest, are stronger applications and thus are more likely to be approved."

— Ahmad AbuSalah, Director of Clinical Informatics Services

Real-time queries

Researchers can run real-time queries on de-identified patient data in the ENACT Network through the i2b2 tool’s multi-site Shared Health Research Information Network (SHRINE).

The “drag-and-drop” interface makes it easy to select query criteria and users can use the “Workplace” feature to save query logic and previous work to come back to later.

The ENACT Network is one of CTSI’s five data sharing networks it offers to U of M researchers and study teams to tap into opportunities to conduct multi-site clinical trials.

Early adoption

The University of Minnesota Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) was of the first 21 Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) hubs across the country to launch the ACT Network, which was developed by the National Institutes’ of Health National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) and powered by CTSA award site clinical data.

It was the first site in Minnesota to implement the ACT Network, and was the first CTSA hub site in the nation to make this data sharing network of nearly 40 million patient records available campuswide. The new ENACT Network builds upon the structure of the ACT Network. Today, it contains over 150 million patient records and ~90% of the CTSA consortium.

The ENACT Network is HIPAA compliant and pre-approved by the University of Minnesota’s Institutional Review Board (IRB) and does not require study-specific IRB approval.