Case Study: University of California, San Francisco achieves centralized, secure multi-site TBI imaging management for precision medicine with Flywheel

Unlocking Precision Medicine Streamlining Data Management for Multi-Site Traumatic Brain Injury Research

The University of California, San Francisco, led by Dr. Geoffrey Manley, faced a major challenge running the multi-site TRACK‑TBI study: classifying which patients with mild or moderate traumatic brain injury (TBI) would develop long‑term neurological problems and securely sharing very large, granular imaging and clinical datasets across 19 institutions. To solve slow, unreliable transfers and ad hoc workflows (even shipping hard drives), UCSF engaged Flywheel’s cloud‑based biomedical research data platform to provide a centralized, compliant environment for imaging and related data.

Flywheel implemented site‑specific cloud projects with configurable de‑identification templates, high‑performance bulk loading and browser uploads, automated quality‑checking and curation pipelines, and containerized analysis Gears with metadata search and EDC integration. The platform enabled the TRACK‑TBI network to collect >3,000 data fields per subject across 19 partners, process Phase 2 data on more than 3,000 patients into an access‑controlled multi‑modal imaging repository, and support discoveries—such as CT patterns linked to worse outcomes and NODDI as a sensitive biomarker—reported in JAMA Neurology and Science Advances, while dramatically improving reproducibility, security, and cross‑site collaboration.

University of California, San Francisco

Geoffrey Manley

Vice Chairman of Neurological Surgery