Cohort Profile: The North American AIDS Cohort Collaboration on Research and Design (NA-ACCORD)

Abstract

The North American AIDS Cohort Collaboration on Research and Design (NA-ACCORD) was created as part of the International Epidemiologic Databases to Evaluate AIDS (IeDEA) initiative. The IeDEA project establishes regional centres for the collection and harmonization of data and the establishment of an international research consortium to address unique and evolving HIV/AIDS research questions requiring the larger sample sizes that can be achieved by combining multiple cohorts. The IeDEA initiative provides a means to implement methodology to effectively pool collected data, thus providing a cost-effective way to generate large data sets to address high-priority research questions in a timely manner. It is frequently difficult to combine data collected under different protocols, and may not be as efficient as collecting predetermined and standardized data elements under a single protocol. By developing a proactive mechanism for the collection of key variables, the IeDEA initiative is designed to enhance the quality, cost-effectiveness and speed of observational cohort studies pertaining to HIV/AIDS.