CDW-R Cost Structure
The CDW-R operates as a BMC Research Core Facility. There is an hourly fee for all data extraction services.
As of April 1, 2025, CDW-R charges the following hourly fee tiers:
Research teams must identify a source of funding and supply the account number to the CDW-R before a data request will be added to the CDW-R’s work queue. Investigators can include the cost of CDW-R services in their grant proposal budgets or can pay for services using internal funds, such as Department/Division funding or discretionary funds. The CDW-R does not accept out-of-pocket payments.
If you are concerned about CDW-R fees, please reach out to cdw@bmc.org to schedule a free initial consultation. We can advise you on how to keep costs within budgets.
Services that are Subject to the Hourly Fees
All project-specific activities and services beyond the initial free consultation are billable. Services including request development activities, all data extraction coding, request follow-ups, data sets preparation, and modifications to existing data sets are subject to the hourly fees. Time spent by CDW-R analysts to investigate or respond to study team inquiries and/or explore additional data request asks is also subject to the hourly fee. This includes consultations to further refine the data request, data reviews, and meetings a CDW-R team member attends at the study team's request.
Coding and data extraction are dynamic processes; while we can anticipate many aspects of a project in advance, unforeseen circumstances, unplanned complexities, and/or data feed issues can arise during data extraction that may extend the timeline and/or increase CDW-R analyst resources required.
CDW-R strives to communicate cost estimate changes when possible. However, due to the pace of work and direct interactions between researchers and analysts, advance notification cannot be guaranteed. Please be aware that any task requested of a CDW-R analyst will be interpreted as an approved and billable action. We recommend coordinating with CDW-R operations staff to ensure full visibility into ongoing costs.
Services for Which Fees are Waived
- Initial consultation: One (1) initial consultation is provided to all studies free of charge. Subsequent consultations and request development support are subject to the hourly fees.
- Quotes for CDW-R data extraction and provisioning services: The CDW-R team is available to provide quotes for CDW-R services to include in grant and proposal applications. Request a quote by submitting a CDW-R quote request form. Quotes vary by request type, complexity, size, scope, and which data streams need to be accessed. Quotes are subject to change if the project deviates in scope after the initial estimate or if there are unforeseen complications in obtaining relevant data fields. We do our very best to provide accurate quotes, but data extraction is not an exact science and is subject to how data are captured and/or maintained within the data warehouse.
- Simple counts and cohort size estimation: CDW-R provides investigators with aggregate, simple count data to include in grant applications or conduct sample size calculations. Visit CDW-R Services.
- Infrastructure development: CDW-R collaborations with Departments, Divisions, and research teams may result in generalizable processes that benefit the CDW-R and BMC as an institution. In these cases, the CDW-R may waive a portion of its fees for such infrastructure development activities as determined by CDW-R leadership.
Invoicing & Payment
The investigator and administrative contact receive one (1) invoice per delivered data set or quarter. For example, a project with a single data extraction will receive one invoice after the delivery of the data set. A project with recurring data extractions will receive one invoice per quarter that includes all analyst hours attributed to the supplied data set(s) during the quarter. Future data sets will not be provided to investigators until the CDW-R receives payment for previously supplied data sets.
- If you are paying from a BMC Cost Center: The CDW-R bills in cooperation with BMC Research Support Services, which processes all journal entries on behalf of study teams the month following invoice delivery. The BMC PI and financial contact will receive a BMC Debit Memo for study records; there is nothing your team needs to do to process payment. BMC Research Support Services will automatically process the journal entry on your behalf from the referenced account.
- If you are paying from a BU account: If you are paying using a BU IO number, the study PI and financial contact will receive an invoice with instructions to open a purchase order (PO) in the BU Ariba system for payment processing. For efficient and accurate invoice processing, the PO number needs to be supplied to cdw@bmc.org. Please work with a BU staff person who has access to the Ariba system to create the PO and issue payment.
- If you are paying from an account that is not based at BMC or BU: Reach out to cdw@bmc.org before submitting a research data extraction request form.