Getting Ready for LifeScale

Prerequisites to Access LifeScale

There are formal prerequisites for accessing LifeScale, and there are knowledge/skill-based prerequisites for being an effective LifeScale user.

Formal Prerequisites

Compliant access to LifeScale requires completing and maintaining the following throughout your period of use. Certifications/evidence of completion of these requirements will be requested from you and your team as part of the LifeScale intake process.

• CITI Human Subjects Protection and Responsible Conduct of Research Training 
• HIPAA Training accepted by The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center 
• A signed LifeScale Data Use Agreement for each team member
• A signed Conflict of Interest Disclosure for each team member 
• A medical center (osumc.edu) computing account. A guest account may be required for those without a medical center appointment or existing active guest account. Ohio State personnel can access guidance on guest accounts. 

An IRB approval letter is required if you are an Nationwide Children's Hospital employee, are requesting Nationwide Children's data or are requesting to add new data to LifeScale. Please contact lifescale@osumc.edu with any questions about this requirement and how to best meet it. No such letter is required for Ohio State employees who are not requesting Nationwide Children's data or new data.

LifeScale Requires LifeSkills

Other than the formal prequisites , you should be comfortable with:

• Epic’s Caboodle data model.
• Databricks tools and workspace navigation, including fundamentals of computational notebooks.
• Writing code in Python, R, SAS or Scala
• The responsible and secure handling of sensitive health data - HIPAA and Ohio State Institutional Data Training Required for access to Ohio State Health System Data in LifeScale

Getting Started with Azure Databricks

If you or your team members are new to Databricks, we recommend reviewing the following guide to familiarize yourself with the platform's interface and core functionalities:

Databricks UI and Basics: This guide provides an overview of the Databricks workspace, how to navigate the UI, manage notebooks and use essential features. By following this guide, your team can quickly become proficient in using Databricks for research and collaboration.

Now that you’ve evaluated whether LifeScale is the right tool for your needs and what you’ll need to be effective using it, review how to get access to LifeScale.