Clinical & Research Informatics

Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute Of Child Health & Human Development

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

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 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. In the past year, CSSC initiated modernization effort implementing multi-factor authentication, starting to shift from on premise infrastructure to cloud for CSSC non-clinical applications and planning to upgrade the remaining hardware for the on-premises infrastructure. 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 751 studies. The Global Question Library expanded to over 283,000 research questions. Our software development group completed two CTDB releases. Features included improvements on the e-binder module, Forms module and Samples module. We supported the Clinical Trial Survey System (CTSS), an application for patient self-reporting, servicing 84 active protocols. The team completed one CTSS release and -in the continuing effort to modernize- has rolled out all 84 active CTSS redesigned websites. CTDB application also supports the NICHD Office of Clinical Director central biorepository and eligibility monitoring; the CTDB team supports NICHD OCD with customized report integrating with eligibility monitoring workflow. Through the global library in CTDB, several institutes are tracking research teams CVs, trainings and certificate documentation. In the past year the CTDB team continued supporting NICHD DIPHR, and after a multi years effort building the Study of Pregnancy and Neonatal Health; the protocol was pushed to a pilot phase. Since this project inception, data from CTDB supported over 1500 NICHD publications. The database development and reporting team continued data integrations with other NIH institutes and the Clinical center BTRIS and CRIS. The team worked with NHBLI CMRCoop (Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Cooperative) system and continued to work with various NIMH systems to incorporate data from these systems into the CTDB data reporting environment. The team is 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 implemented scoring via the CTDB interface that automates the scoring for this instrument. The team successfully upgraded the Cognos reporting environment to IBM Cognos Cognos 11.2.2 and plan on implementing a new authentication mechanism for Cognos (OIDC). Additionally, the team has worked closely with various PIs across the institutes, to provide both management and research related reports for clinical related studies publishing 510 reports in the past year. The team applied 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. Over the past year, the team planned and worked towards upgrading the hardware environment to a new Solaris host and Oracle 19c. 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, 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 Connection, in collaboration with Intramural Fellows, the monthly Scientific Directors Bulletin for staff, and promotional posters and graphics for sponsored events. We continued maintaining websites for the NICHD DIR Annual Report and DIR Annual Fellows Retreat. 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 include: developing and maintaining laboratory internal websites and internet applications as well as providing other technical services supporting DIR investigators. 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. Also, for the Office of Education, we developed new modules allowing postbaccalaureate trainees to create individual development plans and progress reports. 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 has also improved upon 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. Additional features allow administrative staff to process and track requests after approval and funding. 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. Along with application development, maintenance, and support, the CSSC team successfully migrated infrastructure and applications to Azure Cloud using NIH STRIDES, one of the first organizations to do so.