Cosmos: A Powerful Data Resource for Researchers

Starting in early November 2025, Cosmos, a platform with robust tools and a rich pool of de-identified health data from 1,809 hospitals, 41,500+ clinics and 300 million patients across participating Epic sites in Canada and worldwide, will begin rolling out at The Ottawa Hospital (TOH) and Atlas Alliance hospitals. Access to Cosmos will help drive meaningful discovery and advance research projects while supporting more informed clinical decision-making and enabling more personalized patient care.

Cosmos also makes insights available in Epic Hyperspace, allowing clinicians to collaborate across the Cosmos community. Tools include Look-Alikes, which helps providers facing a rare condition or puzzling case to connect with other providers who have seen similar patients and compare approaches to care. Additionally, condition-specific growth charts show how a child’s growth compares with peers who share the same condition.

Initial access is expected for clinicians and researchers at Epic-enabled Atlas Alliance hospitals. Broader access can occur through partnerships and collaboration with TOH and the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI). Most projects will involve teaming up with an OHRI collaborator or having the analysis done through an OHRI analyst. Clinicians and researchers at Epic-enabled Atlas Alliance partner sites can request access to explore the Cosmos dataset through an online Data Tool Access Request formto aid with research.

Training or certification is required for certain roles, and varies by role and work to be performed. There are also associated costs to use Cosmos, depending on role type and project needs. Roles include researcher, data scientist and data architect. Super users may also be certified to support local teams.

Cosmos Role Types

Table showing Cosmos roles, access, training, cost and effort.
Roles	Description	Access (*All need local Epic access first)	Training + Cost + Effort
Cosmos User	Anyone with access to the portal. This includes the ability to query the Cosmos limited dataset using SlicerDicer, create dashboards with custom components, and share dashboards with other Cosmos users.	Cosmos SlicerDicer	No Training Required No costs Effort = Low
Cosmos Super User	This role has additional support and engagement expectations for Cosmos use at their organization. All users are encouraged to be super users.	Cosmos SlicerDicer	Training Required No costs Effort = Medium
Researcher	Anyone who intends to publish or broadly share their findings based on Cosmos data.	Cosmos SlicerDicer	Training Required No costs Effort = Medium
Data Scientist	Cosmos data scientists use R and/or Python to query data marts curated by data architects to answer questions, generate visualizations, build or validate models, or otherwise use the data science toolset for research or analytics. This role does not have access to SQL. This role often overlaps with the researcher role.	Cosmos SlicerDicer DSVM* for data analysis only	Training Required $528.00 (one-time cost) Effort = High
Data Architect	A Cosmos data architect uses SQL in the Data Science Virtual Machine (DSVM) to answer questions, create data marts, and collaborate with data scientists. This role is restricted to the Analytics team at a partner site (e.g. TOH, UOHI).	Cosmos SlicerDicer DSVM* for database access and analysis	Training Required $1,056.00 (one-time cost) Effort = Very High

*DSVM - Data Science Virtual Machine

Budgeting for Cosmos Costs

Costs for obtaining and using Cosmos data for research projects fall into three main categories that need to be considered while budgeting:

Data Architecture – The cost to build an analytical dataset. This is performed by the Analytics team on a cost recovery basis.
Data Science - Support for a data scientist to analyze data, build models, etc. This may be performed by a data scientist from the OHRI Methods Centre on a cost recovery basis, or by your own data scientist (from an Atlas Alliance site) who will need to complete the mandatory certifications, which also have a cost.
Epic Charge-Back – To support the Cosmos environment, Epic has a charge-back model for funded research projects. Charge-backs are determined on a case-by-case basis.

For more information on Cosmos and how to get started, please contact Deanna Rothwell, Director, Analytics at The Ottawa Hospital at [email protected].