Background/Purpose: TriNetX collaborates with leading contract research organizations, including Syneos and ICON, and partners with 220 healthcare organizations across 30 countries. Since 2018, an increasing number of articles using TriNetX data have been published in various journals. This study aims to review PubMed articles published between 2018 and September 30, 2024, that utilize secondary data from the TriNetX database, identifying prevalent research topics, including common diseases, highly cited articles, and areas of significant interest.
Methods: Data were retrieved from PubMed, a platform that provides access to biomedical citations and abstracts. The research used the TriNetX database, and text mining was performed using R software version 4.2.3. The citation count of the retrieved articles was based on the Journal Citation Reports 2023 and publication dates up to September 30, 2024.
Results: A total of 1,005 articles were identified. The most common research topics were COVID-19 (n=234), diabetes (n=156), and cancer (n=138). Publications surged after 2020, with the U.S. leading in volume. Cureus published the most articles, followed by the International Journal of Impotence Research and the Journal of Medical Virology. The average journal impact factor was 5.2±6.4 (range: 0-96.2), and the average citation count was 15.5±100.2 (range: 0-2,189). Of the 1,005 articles, 24 had over 100 citations, 21 of which focused on COVID-19. The most-cited article (2,189 citations) was COVID-19-related. Among cancer studies, prostate and breast cancer were the most frequent (n=16 each, 11.6%), followed by lung cancer (n=14, 10.1%).
Conclusion: The number of articles using the TriNetX database has increased since 2020. The platform has become a key resource for generating real-world evidence, supporting high-quality, data-driven or hypothesis-driven research across various clinical areas.