Papers on CDE Development for the NTRR Published in TSACO as the Repository Faces Closure – Coalition for National Trauma Research
Six manuscripts describing the process and results of CNTR’s work to identify and specify common data elements (CDEs) for studies in multiple environments of care are now published in Trauma Surgery and Acute Care Open (TSACO). The work was conducted by groups of subject matter experts and data scientists and resulted in a set of 10 core CDEs that we recommend every trauma study collect, as well as five sets of basic CDEs appropriate for collection in studies that focus on these care environments: epidemiology, prehospital, acute hospital, outcomes & rehabilitation, and social determinants of health (SDOH).
This work to develop a comprehensive dictionary of data elements within the National Trauma Research Repository (NTRR) was supported with Congressional Community Project Funding and occurred in 2024 and 2025. For the past year or so, CNTR has been conducting webinars to educate the trauma research community about how to use the repository, working with investigators to upload their legacy study data into the NTRR, and encouraging study teams to adopt the CDEs when building their protocols in preparation for upload and alignment later.
We were, thus, disheartened to learn that the Federal Interagency Traumatic Brain Injury Research (FITBIR) Information System, the structure on which the NTRR resides, is being closed. While CNTR is looking for alternative funding and hosting options, the NTRR is currently undergoing an operational shutdown. Until December 31, 2026, investigators may still apply for a Data Access account and download datasets from the studies that are shared in the Datastore, but Data Submission account requests are no longer being accepted.
CNTR is incredibly grateful for the members of the NTRR Executive Steering Committee, CDE Steering Committee, and CDE workgroups who dedicated their expertise and valuable time to this project. While the NTRR is closing, our commitment to data harmonization has not wavered.
Read the newly published TSACO Special Issue to learn about the development of these core and basic trauma common data elements, which are now available for download on the CNTR website, We encourage investigators to adopt these CDEs as appropriate and plan for data harmonization in the future!
