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How Children’s Mercy is Expanding Self-Service Access to Real-World Data

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July 24, 2026

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Network Spotlight

We are pleased to recognize Children’s Mercy as our Q3 2026 Healthcare Organization Quarterly Spotlight winner!

Children’s Mercy is focused on expanding access to de-identified clinical data in support of its research mission: equipping investigators with tools and resources that help strengthen studies, accelerate insights, and ultimately improve care for children.

Putting Data Directly in Researchers’ Hands

More funding starts with stronger proposals, and that is exactly where Children’s Mercy is already seeing results. By joining TriNetX, the organization gave its researchers self-service access to de-identified clinical data, advancing a key institutional priority: growing research funding. Investigators are using preliminary data to strengthen their proposals, building more competitive applications for grants and other opportunities that move research forward.

A Data Foundation That Keeps Growing

Every new data type opens up new questions researchers can ask. Today, Children’s Mercy contributes electronic health record (EHR) data to the network, and that contribution is set to grow, with clinical text notes on the way and genomic data already in a pilot.

Powering Surveillance and Real-World Evidence

Children’s Mercy researchers are particularly interested in the role of real-world data (RWD) in advancing both retrospective and surveillance prospective studies. Expanding access to these data sources allows teams to investigate trends, better understand outcomes, and identify opportunities to improve care while keeping appropriate privacy protections firmly in place.

Opening New Doors with TriNetX LIVE™ Connect

Children’s Mercy is also exploring new ways to streamline collaboration and increase visibility for clinical research opportunities. TriNetX LIVE™ Connect brings sponsors, contract research organizations (CROs), and healthcare organizations together on a single, secure platform built for communication, document exchange, and trial management. For Children’s Mercy, it has opened a direct way to put upcoming clinical trials in front of potential principal investigators, and to spark the collaborations that follow.

“This capability opens the door to opportunities our providers may not otherwise be aware of. It is a great way to match potential principal investigators to important and often ground-breaking trials in an effortless manner.”

Michael Venneman Senior Manager, Clinical Research Management and Support, Children's Mercy

Looking Ahead: Faster Funding, Broader Discovery

The clearest near-term win is speed. What used to mean waiting months on an internal data request, researchers now do themselves, generating feasibility counts on demand. That shift lets Children’s Mercy pursue more funding opportunities, and back each one with stronger preliminary support.

Two developments stand to widen the field of discovery even further. The first is TriNetX’s Clinical Notes Program (CNP). Through it, Children’s Mercy expects its health services and outcomes researchers, behavioral and developmental health researchers, and psychologists to identify patient populations from social work notes and other clinical documents, sources no self-service data query platform at Children’s Mercy can reach today.

“By enabling the analysis of clinical notes, the scope of discovery for our researchers is substantially expanded and provides access to rich data sources beyond traditional structured datasets. It brings forward critical context that typically lives in narrative documentation, allowing teams to identify and study patient populations in ways that weren’t previously possible through standard self-service tools.”

Abby Kietzman Manager, Research Informatics Experience, Children’s Mercy

Genomics is another emerging area of focus, with the potential to help researchers define study populations by genetic factors in a self-service environment. Building on TriNetX’s April 2026 acquisition of select Zetta Genomics assets, early efforts are underway to enable secure, federated analysis across genomic and clinical data.

“Children’s Mercy has built a genomic medicine program that leverages DNA sequencing data from tens of thousands of patients and family members,” said Tomi Pastinen, VP, Associate Chief Medical Officer for Clinical and Research Integration, Division Director of Genomic Medicine Center, Children’s Mercy. “This resource enables new innovation by bringing together genomic and electronic medical record data supporting more precise queries that can accelerate discovery and advance individualized care for children.”

Recognizing a Forward-Looking Partnership

TriNetX is proud to recognize Children’s Mercy as our Q3 2026 Healthcare Organization Quarterly Spotlight winner. By putting data directly into researchers’ hands, and steadily expanding what that data can do, Children’s Mercy has built real momentum. As its contribution keeps growing, so does the potential for new research and real impact on the children it serves.