UNC School of Medicine, NC TraCS Institute, and UNC Health have collaborated to create the Secure Health Informatics Research Environment (SHIRE), a new analytics platform launching on November 3. SHIRE is designed to support diverse research projects using data from UNC Health’s electronic health records.
New Secure Cloud Environment Set to Transform Research Using UNC Health Electronic Health Records
In a collaborative effort to modernize clinical data infrastructure, the UNC School of Medicine, NC TraCS Institute, and UNC Health have developed the Secure Health Informatics Research Environment (SHIRE). This HIPAA-compliant, cloud-based platform offers powerful computing and flexible analytics tools for research projects utilizing UNC Health’s electronic health record (EHR) data.
SHIRE provides research teams with streamlined access to their data and a wide range of analysis tools—including RStudio, SAS, Jupyter, VSCode, Excel, and Databricks—all within a single platform. Its scalable computing power supports everything from basic analyses to advanced workloads requiring GPUs. Importantly, SHIRE offers a secure, compliant environment for working with clinical data and large language models (LLMs) such as GPT, Llama, and Claude.
Eventually, SHIRE will become the mandatory platform and storage location for all studies using identified or HIPAA-limited EHR data from the Carolina Data Warehouse for Health (CDW-H). Beginning November 3, UNC will start transitioning new and existing projects to SHIRE, with the full migration expected by the end of 2026.
As a cloud-based platform, SHIRE carries usage costs. While UNC Health and the School of Medicine subsidize many of these expenses, researchers are billed monthly based on actual compute usage, making SHIRE a cost-effective solution for projects of all sizes.
If you have an existing CDW-H project: You should have received a survey from NC TraCS asking for basic details about your project(s). This information will help us determine if and when your project needs to be transitioned to SHIRE. Further instructions and details will be provided soon.
If you are planning a new CDW-H project: Please submit your CDW-H request as usual. If your project qualifies for SHIRE, you will be directed to complete a form to request a SHIRE workspace.
For more information on whether SHIRE is suitable for your research, please visit the SHIRE website.
