Frequently Asked Questions
All Cohort Discovery Tools:
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TriNetX-Specific Questions:
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ACT-Specific Questions:
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All Cohort Discovery Tools
Who can use these tools?
TriNetX and ACT are open to all researchers who have a valid URMC account, including employees of URMC and affiliates (e.g. Highland Hospital, FFT, etc.), graduate students, medical students, etc.
Where do clinical data come from?
TriNetX and ACT at URMC receives a Limited Dataset extraction of >1.5 million patients from the eRecord electronic health record database for the following:
- Strong Memorial Hospital
- Highland Hospital
- FF Thompson Hospital
- UR Medicine Ambulatory Clinics
- URMC Urgent Care Centers
What clinical data are available?
Clinical data are available in the following categories:
- Demographics (age, ethnicity, race, vital status)
- Diagnosis
- Medications
- Procedures
- Labs
- Visit Details
- Visit Types (inpatient, outpatient, ED, unknown)
- Age at Visit (in ACT ONLY)
- Length of Stay (in ACT ONLY)
How often are data refreshed in these tools?
Data is updated from eRecord monthly, on the 4th Tuesday of each month.
How far back do the data go?
March 2011 to present.
What data are NOT available at this time?
Clinical data are not available in the following categories:
- Notes/Reports
- Billing
- Insurance/Claims
- Genomics
- Images
- Visit Locations
- Providers (not queryable)
What codes and terminologies do the cohort discovery tools use as a basis for search terms?
Structured data in TriNetX and ACT is compatible with the following standard codes and terminologies:
- Demographics: HL7
- Diagnosis: ICD-9-CM/ICD-10-CM
- Medications: RxNorm
- Procedures: CPT-4/ICD-10-PCS/HCPCS
- Labs: LOINC
What is the nature of the medication data in TriNetX and ACT?
Medication data consists of all historical and active medication orders that appear in the patient record.
What is the nature of laboratory data in TriNetX and ACT?
Laboratory data consists of resulted labs in the patient record that can be associated to a LOINC code.
Is there language data in TriNetX and ACT?
There is no language data in TriNetX, including ASL and interpreter services.
What browser do I need to use to access TriNetX and ACT?
TriNetX and ACT/SHRINE work on Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Edge, and Safari.
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TriNetX-Specific Questions
How do I query for COVID19 patients?
Click here to access strategies for querying COVID19 patients.
How can I request access to TriNetX?
There are two steps to request access:
- Complete online self-paced training "TriNetX 101 - Basic Functionality Course" in MyPath (for URMC employees) or Blackboard (for Med center graduate students only). This training is prerequisite to have access to TriNetX.
- Complete the TriNetX Access Request Form. The CTSI informatics team will review and setup your TriNetX account access within 2~3 business days.
Are dates in TriNetX obfuscated (e.g. shifted, masked, etc.)?
No. Dates are not obfuscated in TriNetX.
Is patient count obfuscated when running a query in TriNetX?
Yes, patient count is obfuscated in two ways:
- Patient count is rounded up to the nearest 10 for all cohort sizes.
- When a query returns a single count (<10), a count of 10 will be reported, and you won’t be able to explore this cohort. You will get this message: “The cohort size is too small so detailed information cannot be displayed.”
Can patients be identified in TriNetX?
No. Only patient counts are returned.
Can patient-level data be obtained using TriNetX?
Yes. To get identifiable data, Limited Data Sets, or De-Identified data for your patient cohort for IRB approved studies or other qualified studies, please contact the CTSI Informatics team.
How do I access TriNetX?
- Go to TriNetX
- Enter your URMC email address in the email field. The password field will be automatically hidden when a valid URMC email is entered.
- Click “Login”, and you will be brought to "Sign in with your username and password" page.
- Enter your URMC Active Directory Credentials
- Your username is the one you use to login to your office computer. It is not your email address.
- Your password is what you use to check your URMC email.
- Choose “URMC Active Directory” from the Domain drop-down list and click “Sign In”.
- You will be brought into your TriNetX study page.
- If you login from a computer that is **not** on URMC network, Duo Authentication will kick in and asks for your approval on this login request from your registered mobile device. Upon successful login, the computer is recorded as a trusted device and you will not need to go through the Duo Authentication again, unless there is no active login from that computer in 60days.
- Your account will be automatically locked after 5 consecutive failed login attempts. Please contact CTSI Informatics for support if this happens.
TriNetX doesn’t seem to work on Internet Explorer. When I attempt to access the login page I get a white screen. What can I do?
Internet Explorer is supported by TriNetX. If your Internet Explorer browser is set to Protected Mode, it must be disabled in Internet Explorer's security settings.
To disable Protected Mode:
- In the top right-hand corner of IE, click on the gear icon
- From the drop-down menu, select Internet Options
- Select "Security" from the top menu
- Uncheck the box "Enable Protected Mode"
- Click “OK”
Why are counts so low for queries concerning newborn data?
As a privacy protection feature, TriNetX makes ALL clinical facts (e.g., diagnosis, procedure, etc.) that were within 30 days from patient date of birth not queryable. For example, if a patient was born 1/1/16 and the fact occurred on 1/20/16, it would not be queryable on TriNetX’s web interface.
Can I query patients by hospitals and/or departments?
TriNetX now offers users a way to view query results by UR Medicine hospitals and department. Under the “Healthcare Organizations (HCOs)” tab in the TriNetX interface, after clicking “Run”, a table will display a breakdown of the patients by UR Medicine hospital and then department from which they received health care. Like all TriNetX results, counts are rounded up to the nearest ten to protect patient identities. Please note, this summary view is by functional department, not physical location.
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ACT-Specific Questions
How can I request access to ACT?
There are two steps to request access:
- Complete online self-paced training. This training is a prerequisite to obtain access to ACT.
- Complete the ACT Access Request Form. The CTSI informatics team will review and setup your ACT account access within 2~3 business days.
How do I access ACT?
You must request access per the information in the previous question. Go to the ACT tool here once you have access: ACT Cohort Discovery Tool.
Are dates in ACT obfuscated (e.g. shifted, masked, etc.)?
Yes. A patient’s event dates are shifted to a random date in the 60-day window preceding the true event date. The applied shift is the same for all events for each patient, but different at each query run
Can patients be identified in ACT?
Only patient counts are returned for other CTSI institutions. You can request reidentification of UR Medicine patients through the data request process on the Informatics section of the CTSI website.
Can patient-level data be obtained using ACT?
Yes, but only for UR Medicine patients.
Is patient count obfuscated when running a query in ACT?
Yes, patient count results will be obfuscated +/-10 and rounded to the nearest 5. Sample sizes smaller than 10 will not be returned.