Cancer Research Network (CRN)

The Cancer Research Network (CRN) is a consortium of research groups affiliated with non-profit integrated health care delivery systems. Funded by the NCI as a cooperative agreement grant from 1999-2018, the CRN conducts, promotes, and facilitates cancer research across the cancer care continuum. With their extensive clinical data systems and defined member populations, the CRN has been a leader in translational population sciences research.

The CRN is currently comprised of fifteen participating health plans that collectively provide care to millions of members. All participating health care systems are also part of a larger, umbrella organization, the Health Care Systems Research Network (HCSRN).

The CRN has published over 1,500 peer-reviewed scientific research articles to date. With over 100 researchers focused on topics across the cancer continuum, the network continues to seek new partners and opportunities for collaboration. Among the many benefits of conducting research in the CRN, the learning health care system environment provides opportunities to apply research findings directly to the care process. The CRN also boasts large and diverse member and provider populations as well as comprehensive informatics platforms. Central to the CRN’s research infrastructure is their Virtual Data Warehouse (VDW), which extracts data from participating health care systems’ electronic health records and administrative databases and maps these data to a common data model. The VDW has been a key innovation of the network to facilitate multisite collaborations.

For more information about the CRN, including research tools and opportunities for collaboration, please visit their website.