Planning Grant: Engineering Research Center for Health Information Visualization and Exploration (HIVE)

University Of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst MA

Investigators

Abstract

The Planning Grants for Engineering Research Centers competition was run as a pilot solicitation within the ERC program. Planning grants are not required as part of the full ERC competition, but intended to build capacity among teams to plan for convergent, center-scale engineering research. We are making tremendous progress in healthcare through the wide adoption of advanced technologies including electronic health records, mobile devices and sensors, and genetic profiling approaches. Because of these advancements, groups such as consumers/patients, clinicians, healthcare administrators, and public health officials must make decisions in increasingly data-rich environments. It is therefore essential that we present these data to decision-makers in understandable and actionable ways, via well-designed data visualizations tailored to varied end users. An ERC focused on health data visualization could help transform this vast and growing amount of health data into useful, actionable information. This ERC planning grant will provide a unique opportunity to bring together researchers and stakeholders from across the nation to systematically plan for an ERC that will improve healthcare decision-making - and therefore health outcome - by fundamentally changing the way health data visualizations are designed, developed, and implemented. The planning grant will also allow the research team to develop an ERC that will strengthen our engineering workforce by providing a diverse group of students with transdisciplinary mindsets, experiences, and skills to work in the rapidly growing health information technology and data science landscapes. After conducting the planning grant activities, we will be positioned to submit a strategic ERC proposal with a clear and cohesive 10-year vision, driven by a large interdisciplinary team of researchers and stakeholders from academia, industry, and government. We will also have operational structures and procedures specified to facilitate long-term shared visioning, efficient and effective operations, professional development opportunities, high-value student training, and clear communication of center activities to diverse audiences. The planning grant will involve continuous asynchronous collaboration between the research team members, an in-person research team visioning workshop, and a 2-day facilitated workshop. The workshop will involve interdisciplinary researchers from the team members? institutions and members of the stakeholder community, including those from healthcare provider organizations, technology companies, insurance companies, and government agencies. The team will also generate a summary report of lessons learned from the planning process, aimed to help other teams who may be undertaking large planning efforts in different research areas. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.