Guidance for Potential CDM Enhancements

The [Data Committee Charter] (https://github.com/PCORnet/DataCommittee/wiki/Charter) includes the responsibility to develop the processes and governance for annual updates of the [PCORnet Common Data Model (CDM)] (http://www.pcornet.org/pcornet-common-data-model/), in collaboration with the Coordinating Center. Please see section VI.H. of the charter for the full description.

As this process is being developed, we recognize that there are areas of interest and strong engagement from the community. We appreciate this collaborative spirit, and would recommend that for any CDM enhancement, proposers should first pilot to demonstrate the research improvement and sustainability. Interested parties should pilot such an extension of the CDM to support valuable research projects as well as measure the quality of these newly recorded variables. They could be stored in an [EAV] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entity–attribute–value_model) observation/condition to augment the model prior to a transition from pilot to full part of the model. After they have results they could come forward with a proposal.

This guidance is provided in advance of the [formal strategy review and development] (https://github.com/PCORnet/DataCommittee/wiki/Develop-Annual-Updates-of-the-Common-Data-Model), and can be expected to be refined as best practice and processes are assessed and developed.

To track areas of development and potential enhancement, the [CDM Guidance tracker] (https://github.com/CDMFORUM/CDM-GUIDANCE/issues) will be our mechanism for tracking, and we encourage interested parties to connect in this area.