Preclinical Common Data Elements
At this time, the FITBIR informatics platform is limited to housing research data on Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) studies related to human subjects. FITBIR is not housing preclinical research data related to non-human subjects. Preclinical TBI researchers are referred to utilize the interagency resource center known as PRE Clinical Interagency reSearch resourcE-TBI (PRECISE-TBI) center and to house their data in the Open Data Commons – Traumatic Brain Injury (ODC-TBI) repository.
In partnership with the Department of Defense (DoD), the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke (NINDS) has led efforts to develop standards for preclinical research data in TBI. Experts in preclinical TBI research from academia were invited to participate in TBI Preclinical Working Groups with the goal of developing TBI common data elements (CDEs) for preclinical research and to establish guidance for the utilization of preclinical CDEs in TBI research. The outcomes of these working groups have been reported by Smith et al. 2015 and LaPlaca et al. 2021 and additional details are archived below. NINDS is continuing to lead these efforts for preclinical CDE development and refinement in partnership with the DoD and Veterans Affairs (VA) through the VA-funded interagency resource center PRECISE-TBI.
The primary objective for developing preclinical CDEs is to produce a well-defined lexicon for describing and reporting how preclinical data are collected with the goal of enhancing rigor, reproducibility and transparency in study performance. The goal of CDEs is to develop a tool to improve standardization of data collection such that experimental details and procedures are reported in a standard transparent manner that allows for rigor and reproducibility. Additionally, it is important for data to be collected, reported and curated in a standardized manner and format that will allow TBI researchers to share data across sites and reuse data for either secondary analyses or big data analyses.
Please refer to the NINDS “Focus on Traumatic Brain Injury Research” webpage for regular updates on preclinical CDEs.