INFORMATICS & DATA SCIENCE
ITM DATA COMMONS
Health is shaped by more than genetics and clinical care. It's influenced by your neighborhood, the air you
breathe, access to green space, and economic opportunity. The ITM Data Commons makes these contextual
factors accessible for biomedical research, offering curated social, environmental, and community datasets that
can be linked with biological and clinical data for a fuller picture of disease and health outcomes.
COHORT DISCOVERY TOOL (ITM LEAF)
ITM Leaf is a self-service cohort discovery tool that queries de-identified EHR data across Rush University
Medical Center, the University of Chicago, and Loyola University Medical Center. Search by demographics,
diagnoses, procedures, encounters, and vital status to generate patient counts for feasibility assessments, IRB
protocols, and grant proposals—no approved protocol required to get started.
BIOSTATISTICS
The Biostatistics Laboratory is a collaborative team of statisticians, data scientists, and research professionals
who support investigators across the University with study design, grant development, data analysis, and
manuscript preparation. ITM researchers at every stage of a project can partner with the Biostatistics
Laboratory for short-term consultation on statistical methods, analytic planning, and related research
questions.
CENTER FOR RESEARCH INFORMATICS (CRI)
Since 2011, the Center for Research Informatics (CRI) has advanced biomedical and biological
sciences at the University of Chicago and beyond, offering researchers secure, state-of-the-art
technologies for every stage of the data lifecycle, from acquisition and storage to analysis and
sharing. CRI’s 35+ member team brings expertise in clinical data analytics, machine learning, natural
language processing, software engineering, and genomic analysis, supporting everything from
individual research projects to major multi-institutional initiatives.
SURVEY LAB
The University of Chicago’s Survey Lab provides high-quality data collection and consulting services to
researchers from all five ITM institutions. The Survey Lab’s experts focus on the important details that define
quality data collection. Their goal is to help you ask better questions – from refining big research questions to
making informed decisions about specific aspects of design and implementation.
REDCAP
The Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap) resource offers researchers a one-stop-shop and automated
tools to collect data, create standardized surveys, and export data to statistical software packages. The ITM
partners with the CRI to give you free access to REDCap, as well as free expert consulting and training to help
you make the most of this web-based platform that’s already used by more than 693,000 researchers
worldwide.
MEET THE ITM INFORMATICS & DATA SCIENCE TEAM
Sam Volchenboum, MD, PhD
ITM Informatics Director
University of Chicago
Suzi Birz
ITM Informatics Co-Director
University of Chicago
Kat Bouzein
ITM Program Director
University of Chicago
Kritika Prakesh
ITM Data Commons Analyst
University of Chicago
Michael Baltasi
Institutional Informatics Lead
Advocate
Julie Johnson
Institutional Informatics Lead
University of Chicago
Ron Price
Institutional Informatics Lead
Loyola
Carlos Santos
Institutional Informatics Lead
Rush
Tony Solomonides
Institutional Informatics Lead
Endeavor
Not Sure where to start?
Connect with an IT ITM Local Navigator to learn more about how we can partner to make your research matter.
