The proposed U54 application will examine the association of repetitive head impacts (RHI) and traumatic brain injury (TBI) with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related dementias (ADRD), chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), and other neuropathologies, and their resulting clinical syndromes. The primary mission of the Data Coordinating Core (DCC) is to provide leadership and expertise in all phases of data management and statistical analyses, from development of project infrastructure to publication of results. This collaborative assistance encompasses data sharing, development of the analytic plan, database design, implementation of data collection and quality control procedures, technical support, creation of analytic datasets, statistical analyses, and manuscript preparation. Our overall aim is to provide procedural consistency and efficiency of study-wide systems, ultimately producing the highest quality data and analysis for use by study researchers and affiliates. DCC will harmonize data from the 8 novel brain banks: 6 at Boston University (BU): VA-BU-CLF or UNITE, Chronic Effects of Neurotrauma Consortium (CENC), Alzheimer's Disease Center (BUADC), VA Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), VA Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Framingham Heart Study (FHS) brain banks and 2 at ISMMS : Late Effects of TBI (LETBI) and AD Research Center (ADRC). The main objectives of the DCC are to maintain an integrated, user-friendly data management system and to implement procedures to ensure the highest quality data, security, and integrity; to provide active and integral collaboration in methodological design and statistical analysis to all supported project investigators; and to provide systems and support for resource sharing across all study sites and collaborators. To accomplish these goals, we aim 1) to provide centralized data infrastructure using integrated, user-friendly systems for sharing of information, data, and analysis tools. 2) to provide centralized data management using integrated, user-friendly systems for sharing of information, data, and analysis tools; 3) to disseminate integrated datasets to accelerate the impact of the study's research objectives; 4) to provide high-level biostatistical expertise for all study's projects.
