The Utah Population Database (UPDB) is a University of Utah research resource that supports about 45 research projects and provides access to about 7.1 million records. It is a rich source of information for genetic, epidemiological, demographic and public health studies. The critical component is an extensive set of family histories, whose family members are linked to medical information. In addition to genealogy and fandly history data, UPDB maintains information on all cancers diagnosed in Utah and Idaho, as well as all Utah death certificates. Research studies typically incorporate the family or pedigree structure as part of the research design. These data allow the identification of familial clustering of cancer. The UPDB is the only such database in the US and one of few such resources in the world. All projects require IRB approval. In addition, the Utah Resource for Genetic and Epidemiologic Research (RGE) administers access to the UPDB files through a review process.
The aim of this core is to support biomedical and health-related research with an emphasis on cancer genetics and survival. The goals of the UPDB core are to: 1) Maintain an infrastructure for research by linking cancer, birth, death and driver license data to UPDB, 2) Maintain pedigree infrastructure and analysis tools (e.g. pedigree drawing tools), 3) Provide access to UPDB to support cancer research projects, 4) Update IIPDB information annually, thus providing research projects follow-up information (e.g., deaths, cancer recurrence). These activities require up-to-date resources that are beyond the scope of any single research project. This resource makes available large datasets and multi-generation pedigrees while protecting the privacy of individual-level data in UPDB. Within the next two years, several projects will be completed that refine analysis tools used to analyze pedigrees and that expand the scope of medical records available to users of UPDB.
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