Brim March 2026 Release: The Variable Library is Here!
April 1, 2026
Getting a new abstraction project off the ground takes time. Before you can run a single patient, someone has to define what you're looking for: variable by variable, often from scratch.
This month's Brim release is about changing that.
The March 2026 release introduces two features centered on giving you a faster starting point and a clearer view of how your work has evolved: the Variable Library and Variable History.
The Variable Library: Your First Draft Abstraction, In Minutes
One of the biggest barriers to launching a new project isn't the AI: it's setup time. Defining variables requires clinical expertise, careful writing, and iteration before abstraction is reliable enough to evaluate.
The Variable Library is designed to eliminate that cold start.
The Variable Library is a curated set of validated, pre-built variables maintained by the Brim team. In our launch version, you can browse and search across 5 bundles of variables and add any variable to your project with a single click, complete with definitions you can trust right out of the box.
Library variables are:
- Created by the Brim team, so the definitions are well-formed and validated from the start.
- Logically complete. Adding a variable automatically pulls in any required input variables so nothing is missing.
- Fully editable. The Library gets you to a first draft. From there, it's yours.
Built to Customize
No two institutions are exactly alike. Local acronyms differ. Documentation styles vary. The way one site records a diagnosis may not look anything like how another site phrases it.
We know that using a library variable as-is won't always be the right answer, and we built the Variable Library with that in mind. When you edit a library variable, Brim seamlessly converts it to a custom variable, giving you full control while preserving the original definition as your starting point.
Think of the Library as a scaffold: it gets you 80% of the way there, quickly. The remaining 20%, including the local knowledge, the site-specific phrasing, the institutional nuance, is yours to add.
To browse the library, go to Settings → Variable Library, or use the new Add Variables menu in Project Setup and select "Add from Library." You can also learn more in our documentation.
What's in the Library Today (and What's Coming)
The Variable Library launches today with 5 bundles of variables covering common abstraction needs. We're being intentional about quality over quantity: every variable in the Library has been validated by the Brim team before it ships.
That said, we know the current Library is just the beginning. We have big plans for expansion across more specialties, registries, and use cases, and your feedback will directly shape what we build next.
Have a variable you'd like to see added? Send your suggestions to support@brimanalytics.com. We'd love to hear from you.
Variable History: The Confidence to Iterate
Good abstraction is rarely a one-time event. Variables get refined as you learn from your data, as agreement scores come in, and as clinical reviewers catch edge cases you didn't anticipate at the start.
That iteration is good, and it's how definitions get better. But it can create anxiety. What was the variable doing before I changed it? Was the earlier version actually performing better?
Variable History answers those questions.
Variable History gives you a full record of every change made to any variable's definition, so you can:
- See exactly what changed and when
- Compare past and current versions side by side
- Revert to an earlier version if it performed better in abstraction
Variable History is a safety net, and also an invitation to iterate with confidence. Make a change, test it, and compare. If an earlier version was better, you can get back to it in seconds. Nothing is ever truly lost.
This is especially useful during optimization, when small wording changes can meaningfully shift agreement scores and you need to understand which version produced which results.
You can find Variable History on the Edit Variable screen. Go to Actions in the top right and select "Show History." Learn more in our documentation.
New from Brim
Since our last release, we've also published two new pieces on the Brim blog:
- A Guide to Cancer Registries: How registries work, what data they capture, and how AI tools like Brim are helping registrars spend less time on manual extraction and more time on expert review.
- Introducing BAMM: A Standardized Metadata Model for Clinical Chart Abstraction: Brim's proposal for a shared, machine-readable schema that makes abstraction definitions explicit, versioned, and interoperable across institutions and AI tools.
How to Get the March Release
This release is available as:
Version 2026.03.31
You can check your current version in Settings → About.
As always, thank you for building with Brim.
We're excited to keep making abstraction faster, clearer, and more trustworthy, and grateful to support the important work your teams are doing every day.