This Beacon uses the GA4GH Beacon v2 API to find individuals present in an implementation of a Trusted Research Environment (TRE), called TRE-FX.

TRE-FX streamlines the ability to run the same analysis across multiple TREs. In this demonstrator, the analysis is a Beacon query (specifically, a Beacon query using only filters) that is run as a workflow over an OMOP database of synthetic COVID-19 patient EHRs.

There are four stages involved from sending a Beacon query to receiving a Beacon response using the TRE-FX implementation:

  1 - The Beacon query that is received from the interface, or the API, is sent to the “submission layer” as a GA4GH TES message where it waits for ingress into the TRE.

  2 - The TRE regularly checks the submission layer for Beacon queries. When it finds one, the query goes through security checks and is imported into the TRE.

  3 - The TREs TES executing agent (Funnel) uses the Beacon query in the input parameters to execute a Beacon over OMOP Docker image.

  4 - To ensure no disclosive data are released from the TRE, workflow outputs are held for egress approval from the TRE owner in a manual process. In this demonstrator, synthetic data are used so the Beacon response is automatically released.

The Beacon will return true or false to indicate if the filters have been observed in any individuals.

Note: It may take up to 3 minutes for a Beacon response from this demonstrator. This is due to the query waiting at the submission layer for ingress into the TRE.

This Beacon TRE-FX demonstrator is provided by the Centre for Health Informatics and Digital Research Service at the University of Nottingham.