VOCABULARY MANAGEMENT FOR CLINICAL RESEARCH DATABASES

Yale University, New Haven CT

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

PROPOSAL (Adapted from the applicant's abstract): This application presents a career development plan in the field of Medical Informatics, spanning clinical trials, computer science and medicine. The long-term objective of this submission is to launch an independent research program aimed at identifying models of organizing and structuring generic data items for computerized measurements of clinical research data. The overall goal of this research is to help standardize clinical trials data, thereby improving patient-oriented research and increasing the translation of research into clinical practice. After completing clinical training in preventive medicine, the candidate participated in a two-year postdoctoral fellowship in Medical Informatics. During this time, the candidate gained experience and expertise in computer science and clinical computing research issues such as clinical database development and design. As of July 1, 2000, the candidate will become an Assistant Professor in the YCMI. This career award will provide invaluable support for the candidate to continue to develop expertise in relevant areas of computer science and patient-oriented health services research, and to achieve the immediate goal of scientific independence as a junior faculty member. An outstanding group of mentors and advisors have been assembled who will provide guidance with respect to the direction of the candidate's research and long-term career goals, and provide advice and counsel on the ethical conduct of research. The career development plan includes additional training to include coursework and intensive workshops in the areas of computer science, investigative medicine, and advanced health services research. The research plan presented below involves: 1) building advanced informatics tools for searching and organizing the internal data dictionary of a clinical research database (Trial/DB) and integrating standardized clinical vocabularies into Trial/DB; 2) developing models that allow related data items to be maintained in organized ways, thus promoting future collaboration and sharing; and 3) collaborating with clinical investigators currently using Trial/DB to test, refine, and improve the tools and models developed above in the context of ongoing or new studies.