New R Package for Easier Access to the TB Portals API

The TB DEPOT Analytic API was released to facilitate access and retrieval of temporally distributed information supporting TB DEPOT in accordance with the FAIR data guidelines. Multiple programming languages are supported including Python and R with examples provided in each. Today, we are pleased to announce a new R package to ease access to the analytical API and the de-identified, temporal data from publicly shared cases. 

 

The TB Portals Program actively collects international TB patient case data, including clinical, imaging, and bacterial genomic information. A key goal of the program is to make TB data openly available for research and educational purposes. The Data Sharing site provides resources about the TB Portals' data to data scientists, developers, and researchers to help new and experienced users maximize the research opportunities and benefit of the publicly shared data. The site includes a description of TB Portals data, data download options for external users with an approved DUA, data access guides, sample notebooks illustrating how to work with the data, and FAQs to commonly asked questions.  The TB Portals program encourages TB researchers who are interested in or actively using TB Portals data to spend some time reading the available materials on the Data Sharing site and to revisit the site often as questions about the data arise. While the TB Portals data is a rich and unique data source that can allow for multiple research and educational opportunities, it is critical to understand the origins and inter-relationships within the data to realize its full potential. 

 

ABOUT THE TB PORTALS PROGRAM 

The TB Portals Program is a multinational collaboration to advance TB research through data sharing and analysis. All TB Portals data and the associated analytical and statistical tools are available at tbportals.niaid.nih.gov.

 

Follow @NIAIDBioIT on Twitter for the latest news and updates.