Important Announcements

Nondiscrimination Policy Update

Boston Medical Center Health System complies with applicable Federal civil rights laws and does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, color, national origin (including limited English proficiency and primary language), religion, culture, physical or mental disabilities, socioeconomic status, sex, sexual orientation and gender identity and/or expression. BMCHS provides free aids and services to people with disabilities and free language services to people whose primary language is not English.

To read our full Nondiscrimination Statement, click here.

The CDW-R supports research among Boston University Medical Campus (BUMC) students as well as residents and fellows from all BMC departments. The CDW-R requires a BMC mentor to be engaged in the trainee's data request process. Mentors should plan to attend the initial data request consultation with the trainee. Please review the additional requirements below.

BUMC Students

BUMC students from the School of Medicine, School of Public Health, and School of Dental Medicine are required to have a faculty-level BMC mentor who oversees the data request process and is ultimately responsible for the data. Students are subject to CDW-R the hourly fees. Students should work with their faculty mentor and advisory systems to determine resources to support their CDW-R data extraction request. 

Please note, given complexities with medical record data, CDW-R typically does not release pre-Epic data for student projects. We highly recommend that student projects remain within the Epic billing time period (mid-2018 – present), which presents the highest-quality data for the most feasible project completion. 

In addition, BUMC students are required to secure a data sharing agreement. From BMC Research Operations: If data are being transferred to any collaborator or third party outside of Boston Medical Center (including sending data to BU, BUMC study staff/collaborators, and/or BUMC students), a data sharing agreement is required. BUMC is defined as investigators from Boston University School of Medicine, Boston University School of Public Health, and Boston University Goldman School of Dental Medicine. Before sharing any data, contact Asa Lopatin, Director Research Contracts and Industry Agreements, at Asa.Lopatin@bmc.org for steps to execute the appropriate data sharing agreement. The CDW-R does not manage data sharing agreements; Principal Investigators and study teams are responsible for taking the necessary steps to ensure the appropriate agreements are in place before any data are shared outside of BMC.

As a BMC research core facility, the BMC CDW-R is a BMC/Boston University Medical Campus resource. CDW-R does not release data for projects that are not affiliated with Boston University nor to students that are not members of the Boston University community.

BMC Residents and Fellows

Residents and fellows conducting research that requires data provided by the CDW-R are considered members of their respective departments and are subject to CDW-R hourly fees. Residents and fellows are required to have a BMC faculty mentor who oversees the data request process and is ultimately responsible for the data request. Residents and fellows should speak with their mentors and departments regarding resources to support their data extraction request.  

See How to Request Data for a step-by-step process to get data.

If you are a BUMC student, resident, or fellow conducting research and have additional questions, please email your questions to cdw@bmc.org. Please note: CDW-R does not conduct consultations with student, resident, nor fellows unless the BMC PI/mentor is in attendance.