Clinical & Research Informatics

Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute Of Child Health & Human Development

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

Network and Desktop: During the past year, the Computer Support Services Core (CSSC) continued supporting reliable, secure, and efficient information technology solutions. This includes acquisition, maintenance, and support for licensed software used by our DIR research community e.g., GraphPad Prism, Amira, DNASTAR Lasergene, MathWorks MATLAB, SnapGene, and FlowJo, as well as network services (email, data backups, VPN, helix, PDAs, wireless configurations) and cross-platform desktop, server and application hosting in the Rock Spring and Bldg. 35 Data Centers. We also assist users in identifying, researching and purchasing custom hardware configurations to match research instrument requirements. Data Recovery Services: Core data recovery tools were implemented for all media: hard drive, SSD, and flash etc., including RAID 0 and 5 recovery tools. Since 2005, the Core has recovered over five Terabytes of research data from failed drives and media and saving thousands of dollars in recovery costs. Clinical informatics: CSSC continued to support and develop applications related to clinical and translational medicine, including the Clinical Trials Database (CTDB) project. Such informatics tools allow researchers to design, collect, and report clinical observations related to natural history and interval-based studies. The total number of protocols and research projects supported by the CTDB team for 15 NIH institutes increased to 720 including 6 COVID studies. The Global Question Library expanded to over 274,000 research questions. Our software development group completed two CTDB releases. Features included improvements on the Quality Assurance module, Forms module and Barcode printing. We supported the Clinical Trial Survey System (CTSS), an application for patient self-reporting, servicing 90 active protocols. The team completed one CTSS release and has rolled out 48 CTSS redesigned websites. CTDB application also supports the NICHD Office of Clinical Director central biorepository and eligibility monitoring. Through the global library in CTDB, several institutes are tracking research teams CVs, trainings and certificate documentation. In 2021, the CTDB project went through a third party audit and got re-certified with the 21 CFR Part 11 compliance. Since it's inception, data from CTDB supported over 1500 NICHD publications. The database development and reporting team continued integrations with other NIH institutes. The team completed an integration with NHBLI that receives data from the CMRCoop (Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Cooperative) system. The team continued to work with various NIMH systems to incorporate data from these systems into the CTDB data reporting environment, specifically working towards integrating the NIH Toolbox system used by investigators at NIMH. We continued supporting data marts as new reporting requirements appear and migrating data as needed. The team added extract data from CITs Biomedical Translational Research Information System (BTRIS) to support investigators research in addition to migrating data into the data mart from various external research organizations (MedStar, Inova, John Hopkins, etc). The team has upgraded all supporting Oracle databases to 19c and intends to complete final production upgrade to Oracle 19c by the end of the calendar year. The team successfully upgraded the Cognos reporting environment to IBM Cognos 11.1.4 and is working towards upgrading the environment to IBM Cognos 11.2.2. Additionally, the team and has worked closely with various PIs across the institutes, to provide both management and research related reports for clinical related studies publishing over 650 reports in the past year. The team applies the latest patches to all production database environments to ensure continued uninterrupted services and monitors the successful completion of backup and data mart transformation services. Biological visualization web services: The CSSC team provided DIR laboratories with scientific communications and media services, including publication support and website support. Those services were provided to: The NICHD DIR Annual Report, the DIR Annual Fellows Retreat, the DIR Annual Scientific Retreat, the Anita B. Roberts Lecture Series, and the NICHD research labs and medical training programs. For intramural labs, we created scientific figures and illustrations for publication in medical and scientific journals. We supported the NICHD Office of Education by producing a monthly newsletter, The NICHD Connectionin collaboration with Intramural Fellowsand the monthly SD bulletin for staff. We continued maintaining websites for the NICHD DIR Annual Report. The CSSC continued to provide a platform for conducting scientific review by the Board of Scientific Counselors, administrative intranet support and business operations. The activities of the DIRWeb services program included: laboratory websites and internet applications. DIRWeb includes a lab training web service with the Division of Occupational Health and Safety Training which allows ease of training compliance and tracking for the NICHD Health and Safety Committee. The team continued to release enhancements to the Fellows Annual Progress Report; a unified means for tracking and mentoring intramural trainees along with easing the re-appointment process. This solution provided the Office of Education useful metrics regarding mentoring and training programs. The Exit Survey feature - a short survey allowing DIR trainees a platform for providing feedback - has also been updated for DIR Fellows. We continued developing new features and improvements for the Package Tracking module used by the DIR Administrative Management Branch, providing AMB staff real-time accuracy metrics for personnel and travel package compilation. The team is also finalized the Capital Equipment/Expenditure Request Tracking System that allows users to efficiently submit requests through the review process while allowing administrative staff the ability to track requests through the workflow process. The project has been well received enough to allow potential offerings to the NICHD extramural community as well as the Office of the Director. The CSSC team continues to develop and support multiple feedback systems to support real-time customer satisfaction collection. These include surveys for the AMB, Office of the Clinical Director, laboratory administrative support staff, and NICHDs Administrative Services Branch. This system also offers more detailed feedback submissions periodically along with comprehensive response metrics.