The Federal Interagency Traumatic Brain Injury Research (FITBIR) informatics system was developed to share data across the entire TBI research field and to facilitate collaboration between laboratories, as well as interconnectivity with other informatics platforms. Sharing data, methodologies, and associated tools, rather than summaries or interpretations of this information, can accelerate research progress by allowing re-analysis of data, as well as re-aggregation, integration, and rigorous comparison with other data, tools, and methods. This community-wide sharing requires common data definitions and standards, as well as comprehensive and coherent informatics approaches.
To achieve its vision, FITBIR implements the interagency Common Data Elements for TBI research and provides tools and resources to extend the data dictionary.
FITBIR has established a two-tiered submission strategy to ensure high quality and to provide maximum benefit to investigators.
Qualified researchers can request access to data stored in FITBIR. To gain access to shared data, an investigator must obtain data access privileges.
FITBIR currently contains approximately 200,000 data records from studies funded by the DoD and NIH. This comprehensive data set includes demographics, outcome assessments, imaging and biomarkers.