About SHRINE

Large research studies can’t be conducted if researchers don’t have an easy and effective way of finding participants who meet specific clinical criteria. 

The Shared Health Research Information Network (SHRINE) provides investigators with a network query tool to identify potential clinical cohorts, formulate research hypotheses, and collect data to support grant applications.

SHRINE’s search capabilities are powered by an ontology, typically containing diagnosis, drug ingredient, procedure, and demographic concepts. A web interface allows investigators to combine these concepts to query for a specific population across multiple institutions in the network. SHRINE provides researchers with obfuscated total counts of matching patients, thus ensuring that no patient’s records are compromised in this discovery process.

SHRINE is in use at more than 60 institutions around the world. Development continues in support of ever-larger networks; the largest SHRINE network to date is the NCATS-funded ACT network.