VA Informatics and Computing Infrastructure (VINCI)

VINCI is an initiative to improve researchers' access to VA data and to facilitate the analysis of those data while ensuring Veterans' privacy and data security. VINCI welcomes all researchers in the VA community to explore the environment and tools available.

Data

VINCI is a partner with the Corporate Data Warehouse (CDW) and hosts all data available through CDW as well as some unique data.

Example data sets are:

• CDW extractions from VistA
• MedSAS in SAS and SQL
• DSS in SAS and SQL
• TIU
• Radiology notes

Please see the VINCI Central Intranet site at http://vaww.vinci.med.va.gov/vincicentral/default.aspx for a list of data available. Researchers may also bring in their own data.

Applications

VINCI hosts many types of analytical applications. Generally, these applications will run much faster in the VINCI server environment than on your local computers. We attempt to update to the latest versions. Example applications are:

• SAS Grid
• Stata MP
• R

VINCI Workspace

Researchers will access the data along with the tools for reporting and analysis in a secure Workspace. The Workspace is provisioned so that each study has its own project site where multiple people can collaborate using a common set of software tools and files. VINCI staff can also provide an isolated virtual machine for specific development activities. VINCI has a common access point using Remote Desktop Connection to connect from anywhere within the VA network.

Projects in Development

VINCI staff are partnering with research groups such as the Consortium for Health Informatics Research (CHIR) to bring new types of data and new applications to VINCI. The focus is on structured data derived from text using natural language processing. Funded by HSR&D and OI&T, VINCI functions in conjunction with with the Office of Informatics and Analytics (VHA OIA).

Get Started

For more information and to get started using VINCI, please visit our VINCI Central Intranet site at:
http://vaww.vinci.med.va.gov/vincicentral/default.aspx