From use cases to infrastructure: a cross-institutional survey of priorities in data-driven biomedical research

Raja Mazumder, McCormick Genomics and Proteomics Center, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, The George Washington University, Washington, DC 20037, United States.
Jonathon Keeney, DNA HIVE, Inc, Rockville, MD 20853, United States.
Luke Johnson, McCormick Genomics and Proteomics Center, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, The George Washington University, Washington, DC 20037, United States.
Lori Krammer, DNA HIVE, Inc, Rockville, MD 20853, United States.
Patrick McNeely, DNA HIVE, Inc, Rockville, MD 20853, United States.
Jorge Sepulveda, Pathology Department, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, The George Washington University, Washington, DC 20037, United States.
Danielle Hangen, DNA HIVE, Inc, Rockville, MD 20853, United States.
Maria Martin, European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI), Hinxton, United Kingdom.
Dushyanth Jyothi, European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI), Hinxton, United Kingdom.
Jonas De Almeida, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics (DCEG), National Cancer Institute (NCI), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, MD 20854, United States.
Peter McGarvey, Innovation Center for Biomedical Informatics (ICBI), Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC 20007, United States.
Adil Alaoui, Innovation Center for Biomedical Informatics (ICBI), Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC 20007, United States.
Sarah Cha, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York Presbyterian Hospital, New York, NY 10065, United States.
Art Sedrakyan, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York Presbyterian Hospital, New York, NY 10065, United States.
Evan Shoelle, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York Presbyterian Hospital, New York, NY 10065, United States.
Michael Matheny, Department of Biomedical Informatics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN 37203, United States.
Michele LeNoue-Newton, Department of Biomedical Informatics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN 37203, United States.
Robert Winter, Department of Biomedical Informatics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN 37203, United States.
Stephen Deppen, Department of Thoracic Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN 37203, United States.
Vahan Simonyan, DNA HIVE, Inc, Rockville, MD 20853, United States.
Anelia Horvath, McCormick Genomics and Proteomics Center, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, The George Washington University, Washington, DC 20037, United States.

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

1-20-2026

Journal

Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA

DOI

10.1093/jamia/ocag001

Keywords

biomedical informatics infrastructure; electronic health records; federated analytics; multi-modal data integration; privacy-preserving data sharing

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: Federated Ecosystems for Analytics and Standardized Technologies (FEAST) is a modular, cloud-based platform developed through the ARPA-H Biomedical Data Fabric initiative to enable secure, federated analysis of real-world biomedical data. To guide and iteratively refine its modular design, the FEAST team conducted a cross-institutional survey to systematically identify and prioritize research needs related to authorized-access data across diverse biomedical domains. This study presents a structured synthesis of submitted use cases to uncover infrastructure gaps, data integration challenges, and translational opportunities. The results from the survey inform both front-end user-facing functionality and backend data requirements, shaping how the interface supports user interactions, data types, and compliance with security and interoperability standards. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A structured survey form was distributed to researchers affiliated with participating institutions, including DNA-HIVE, The George Washington University (GW-FEAST), Weill Cornell Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Georgetown University, European Bioinformatics Institute, and Kaiser Permanente. Respondents completed standardized fields describing the data types of interest, project goals, analytic methods, and perceived technical barriers. The collected responses were curated and analyzed to identify common needs related to privacy, interoperability, scalability, and workflow reproducibility. RESULTS: The survey compiled 61 use cases spanning genomics, imaging, clinical phenotyping, EHR-driven analytics, and precision medicine. Common themes included the need for multi-modal data integration, HL7 FHIR-based secure access, federated model training without PII retention, and containerized microservices for scalable deployment. Convergent needs across institutions emphasized consistent demand for FAIR-compliant infrastructure and readiness for real-world data analytics. CONCLUSION: The FEAST Use Cases survey provides a cross-sectional view of biomedical informatics priorities grounded in real-world data needs. The findings offer a strategic blueprint for developing federated, privacy-preserving infrastructure to support secure, collaborative, and scalable biomedical research.

Department

Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine

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