What is it and why does it matter?
The Database of Genotypes and Phenotypes (dbGaP) has been used for over a decade to safely store and provide access to anonymized patient-level data related to research studies. Now you can get a Subject Sample Telemetry Report (SSTR) providing you more details about a dbGaP submission.
With a growing database of over 2,300 studies with billions of demographic, phenotypic, and exposure measurements, we want to ensure you can easily access publicly available information for data submitted to us.
What information is included in this report?
The SSTR is a one-stop shop for:
- Subject and sample IDs
- Consent documents
- Summary counts
- ID processing status
- Assigned accessions
- Molecular and sequence sample uses
- Data types released or ready for release
Features and Benefits
- Provides new filtering and search capabilities
- Enhances download features
- Allows for quick and easy determination of any errors in the processing of your data
- Ensures quality, transparency, and consistency in data processing and release
For your convenience, we have also created an SSTR Application Program Interface (API) to access this information. You can use the API to explore the data and compare multiple studies (see image below for an example). See the SSTR API documentation page to try it out!
We also increased connections of this data across NCBI systems by assigning BioSample IDs to each record. When the submitter provides additional data for a study, we automatically update the report. For example, once the subject and sample IDs are verified and published, the system reuses these to create an input file for the sequence metadata, where appropriate. Once the sequence metadata is provided and loaded, we can add the high throughput sequence data files and the SSTR will continuously update for these additional steps.
The SSTR is an integral part of the dbGaP curation validation step for ensuring a study is completely processed. It will remain available for released data and can be used by anyone interested in a study to get more details of what is in the report (see an example).
Stay up to date
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We want to hear from you!
Let us know how you have used this or plan to use this report in the future by writing to dbgap-help@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Feel free to contact us with questions or feedback!