Crimson - i2b2 integration for high-throughput, scalable sample collection

Brigham And Women'S Hospital, Boston MA

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Lack of well-phenotype samples remains a key bottleneck in biomedical research. The costs associated with collection often exceed those associated with any other step in the discovery process. The Crimson application addresses these issues by enabling high-throughput, cost-effective collection of samples for IRB-approved studies by (1) real-time query of discarded samples from Clinical Laboratories and (2) leveraging cohorts generated with i2b2's tools (Informatics for Integrating Biology to the Bedside). Crimson's use with i2b2 has significantly reduced costs associated with sample collection for investigators, often by 1-2 orders of magnitude, while also increasing the throughput of materials available to IRB-approved studies. We believe full integration of Crimson as an i2b2 cell will further promulgate these capabilities at both local and national levels. We propose to develop Crimson vocabularies to increase its interoperability within the i2b2 infrastructure, further design and develop means for distributed queries enabling high-throughput sample collection across institutions, and develop and test an economic model of Crimson's impact upon a research enterprise for studies using Crimson within i2b2 to enable high-throughput sample collection for large-scale research studies.