The Translational Data and AI Collaborative, a newly organized resource rolling out in 2026, delivers resources through a portfolio of translational data resources:

  • Governed, multimodal clinical datasets tailored for translational oncology priorities (OMOP, multimodal datasets such as annotated genomics, digital pathology data, etc.)

  • Data exploration and visualization applications as well as computing, code management and AI capabilities (Atlas, cBioPortal, CARDS GitHub, Databricks built on CARDS)

  • Integrations and support for data analysis and workflows leveraging our resources moving to or from clinical (i.e., Epic, Cogito) or research data systems (e.g., REDCap, Cirro, HPC).

  • Embedded data engineering, data science, informatics and data governance support as a central “hub” of translational data expertise

In partnership with our Data Governance team, we support institutional Data Governance and policy compliance (support for our MOUs, DTAs and HIPAA/Common Rule policy compliance).

What is CARDS?

The Clinical and Research Data System (CARDS) is the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center’s multi-modal translational data platform — a secure, scalable, and supportable foundation designed to unify and modernize how we manage and use cancer-related care data from clinical and derived research data. CARDS provides a centrally governed yet democratized environment and toolset that enables the Fred Hutch community to build data products and tools leveraging multimodal patient clinical and research data. With CARDS, our researchers, clinicians, and data scientists can accelerate innovation across clinical trials, precision oncology, data science, and AI.

CARDS was developed following the 2022 merger of Seattle Cancer Care Alliance and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. CARDS makes it possible to securely integrate data from electronic health records, clinical laboratories, imaging systems, and other sources. This unified ecosystem supports ethical, compliant, and efficient data use — enabling research and operational teams to collaborate effectively while protecting patient privacy and data integrity.

CARDS is being built and maintained by the Office of the Chief Data Officer (OCDO), with Databricks, a unified, cloud-based analytics platform, as it’s central hub. Databricks provides the foundation for CARDS’ data engineering, analysis, and AI capabilities, allowing teams to use shared tools such as notebooks, SQL, Python, and R to create, share, and operationalize data products at scale. Together, the OCDO Data Engineering, Data Science, and Data Governance teams (the Translational Data & AI Collaborative) work to centrally manage data and create useful data products and data exploration tools to enable our translational community to advance our science and our clinical care at Fred Hutch.

Find out more (on campus or on VPN) at our internal site at cards.fredhutch.org.

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