IAIMS Research Focus Group Report
1988
Executive Summary
Team Members
Process
Findings/Conclusions and Recommendations
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The primary goal of the IAIMS Program funded by the National Library
of Medicine is to stimulate medical centers and health science institutions
to plan and implement an Integrated Advanced Information Management System
(IAIMS). IAIMS are institution-wide computer networks that link and relate
library systems with individual and institutional databases and Information
files, within and external to the institution, for patient care, research,
education, and administration. The aim of the Research Focus Group at the
WVU-Health Sciences Center was to consider issues important to the research
community that need to be addressed as this integrated information system
is planned and implemented. To that end, the Research Focus Group met with
key individuals in information management at the Health Sciences Center
in order to better understand the obstacles to efficient and integrated
information management. This committee met and discussed these issues with
Terry Burton, Director of the Health Sciences Library, Rusty Russell, Director
of Academic Technologies at the WVU-HSC; and Edna Bruel, Director of Information
Management for the Clinical Operations of the WVU Health Sciences Center
(Ruby Memorial Hospital, UHA, and United Hospital). Out of this series
of meetings, we formulated a list of essential needs that will be essential
for the IAIMS program to serve the needs of researchers, clinicians, and
students at the West Virginia Health Sciences Center.
This research focus group identified the following priority issues to
be addressed as a part of the IAIMS Planning Process: institution of a
single point of entry for information management for the HSC; development
of a triage system for research information available on the IAIMS home
page; development of a compatible overall information management hierarchy
for the health sciences center; revitalization of the Health Sciences Library;
consolidation of information about information management; central support
fore evaluation and implementation of specialized resources; and provision
of electronic access for extramural investigators. These issues are detailed
in this report.
Team Members
Kenneth S. Landreth, Ph.D. (Team Leader)
Professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology
Adjunct Professor, Department of Pediatrics
Member, Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center
School of Medicine - Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center
John B. Barnett, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair, Department of Microbiology and Immunology
School of Medicine
Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center
Patrick Callery, Ph.D.
Chair, Department of Basic Pharmaceutical Sciences
School of Pharmacy
Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center
Mona Counts, RN-C, CRNP, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair, Department of Health Promotions and Risk Reduction
School of Nursing
Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center
Jodie Jackson, M.P.H.
Program Specialist
Office of Rural Health
Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center
Judith L. Lesso, M.L.S.
Reference Librarian
Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Library
Marie Steelman, M.B.A.
Assistant Director, Cancer Education Program
Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center
Project Coordinator, Oracle Database Conversion
Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center
Eric Westin, M.D.
Professor, Department of Medicine
Section Chief, Hematology and Oncology
Clinical Director, Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center
School of Medicine - Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center
Process
Meetings
The Research Focus Group met and was charged at a meeting of the IAIMS
Project on November 17, 1997. This meeting was coordinated and facilitated
by Ann Olsen from the Vanderbilt University IAIMS Program. Subsequent meetings
were held on January 20, February 17, March 3, and March 17, 1998.
Information Collected
In the course of these meetings, the group had detailed discussions
with the following visitors to the committee: Rusty Russell, Director of
Academic Technologies and PI of the IAIMS Project; Edna Bruel, Vice President
for Information Technologies for the University Health Care Systems and
the Ruby Memorial Hospital; and Terry Burton, Director of the Health Sciences
Library.
Presentations
Presentations were made to the committee by Rusty Russell, Director
of Academic Technologies and PI of the IAIMS Project; Edna Bruel, Vice
President for Information Technologies for the University Health Care Systems
and the Ruby Memorial Hospital; and Terry Burton, Director of the Health
Sciences Library.
Findings, Conclusions, And Recommendations
A. Single Point of Entry for Information Management
for the HSC
Existing informational web pages for the WVU Health Sciences Center
were developed to reflect administrative structure (departments, programs,
etc.). A newly designed system will be based on functional usage (a triage
system for administration, care providers, grant seekers, instructors,
researchers, and students) that will efficiently direct users to essential
information across the Health Sciences enterprise. There must be a single
web page entry point for information of importance for researchers, clinicians,
students, collaborating professionals, and the public which includes information
from the Health Sciences Center, the hospital, and UHA. The construction
of this single point of entry is the mandate of the IAIMS and should be
designed by the IAIMS Program in collaboration with the Health Sciences
Library. The home page for this system should serve as a resource for current
information of interest to health sciences faculty and issues of importance
at the WVU Health Sciences Center. This will include (but not be limited
to) hot biomedical news, new information resources available, seminars
at the Health Sciences Center or at nearby institutions, and advances made
by WVU investigators. Information on this page should be updated regularly
(weekly), and more often if important information issues arise. The home
page must include a user friendly search tool for information resources.
Current web pages for the WVU Health Sciences Center do not reflect
these needs and the Research Focus Group reviewed several existing IAIMS
home pages at other institutions for examples systems already developed
under the auspices of IAIMS funding. This group identified the Health
Links page at the University of Washington as an excellent example
for our planning process (http://healthlinks.washington.edu/)
Recommendation:
The single most important goal for the IAIMS Program will be to develop
a single point of entry for information management at the Health Sciences
Center. This issue is charged by the divisive territoriality of administrative
oversight and implementation of this single point of entry will address
most of the fundamental problems of information management at our institution.
Development of this point of entry is the charge of the IAIMS Project and
its implementation must transcend the myriad of information management
committees that have been promulgated by failure of administrative convergence.
B. Research Information to
be Accessed from IAIMS Home Page
The Research Focus Group identified several issues that need to be
included as part of the IAIMS Home Page. The initial page should include
pointers to toolkits for researchers that include secondary links to funding
resources, institutional regulation (sponsored programs information systems),
state and federal regulations (including the Animal Care and Use Committee
and the Institutional Review Board, research databases clinical and basic),
information about technology transfer and industrial relations, biohazards
regulations, faculty expertise databases, information about information
capabilities, and links to extramural research news services (e.g. EurekAlert
at http://www.eurekalert.org/). As above, several institutions have designed
similar effective pages and these could be used as models to begin evolution
of our own set of research oriented informational pages.
Recommendation:
The following information should be accessible from the IAIMS Home
Page:
-
Links to extramural funding agencies
-
Links to intramural and extramural research databases
-
Notification of extramural funding opportunities
-
Access to research funding information on existing grants and contracts
-
On-line regulations of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee,
the IRB, and the Biohazards Committee
-
On-line applications for the Animal Care and Use Committee, the IRB, and
the Biohazards Committee
-
Availability of research databases
-
Information about new resources for researchers
-
Information about technology transfer contracts at WVU
-
Information about library policies and availability of library resources
-
Faculty expertise database
-
Funding database
-
Online journal subscriptions for full text recovery
C. Compatibility of Information Management Systems
for all Components of the Health Sciences Center
The main obstacle to development of a single point of entry to the
WVU Health Sciences Center Information System is lack of compatibility
of existing information management systems. A recent change in operating
systems at WVU in collaboration with Oracle presents an ideal opportunity
to coordinate information database structure for researchers at this institution.
This coordination should include both informational databases and standardization
of desktop operating systems and email systems into fully compatible systems
that allow unrestricted and uncomplicated intranet communication.
There are two specific compatibility issues that will affect researchers
at the Health Sciences Center:
Development of an Integrated Clinical Data Repository for clinical treatment,
outcome, and billing information must be compatible with Health Sciences
Center information management systems. New burgeoning areas of research
expertise at WVU include all areas of health services research. Investigators
in clinical and health services research at the Health Sciences Center
must have access to essential information from hospital and UHA databases
to conduct their research. This will require coordinated development of
information management systems across the enterprise. It will also be essential
that clinical data repositories maintained at this institution include
new and experimental data that are not included in "standard of care" protocols.
It is this experimental data from patients at our health sciences center
that will contribute to the "standard of care" in the next century.
A second compatibility issue involves access to large research information
databases that are currently housed on mainframe computers at WVNET. These
databases have proven particularly difficult to access because of compatibility
issues and these must be resolved to allow maximal utilization of available
resources.
Recommendations:
Develop an Integrated Clinical Data Repository for clinical treatment,
outcome, and billing information that is compatible with Health Sciences
Center information management systems and will allow entry of additional
fields of interest to researchers dealing with clinical material.
D. Revitalization of the Health Sciences Library
The Health Sciences Library is a first line information resource for
researchers but, at present, does not meet researchers needs. An effective
library is central to the success of IAIMS and revitalization of this unit
will be necessary for integrated information management. Terry Burton has
recently been appointed Director of the WVU Health Sciences Library and
his participation on the leadership of the IAIMS Project is a real opportunity
to impact on this essential resource.
Operational changes of the WVU Health Sciences Library to better meet
users needs should be coordinated by IAIMS. At present, a HSC Library Committee
reviews oversight of the library. This committee meets twice yearly, has
not changed membership in many years, and is largely seen as ineffective
in establishing appropriate policy changes that are needed to function
in the best interest of the research community. The Research Focus Group
recommends that the IAIMS Program should assume responsibility for library
oversight and that existing structure and policies be reviewed by an executive
committee of IAIMS that includes equal representation for research, care
providers, and educators.
Development of a single point of entry for information systems as a
joint project of the library and IAIMS will resolve the problem of electronic
access to the library. At present electronic access of HSC library resources
is of very poor quality and will benefit greatly by the renovation of the
IAIMS Home Page as described above.
This Focus Group discussed the issue of availability of electronic journal
subscriptions and appropriate conversion to electronic journal access to
full text articles across the institution will be a major area of evolution
for the implementation of the IAIMS program.
Recommendations:
The Research Focus Group recommends that the IAIMS Program should assume
responsibility for library oversight and that existing structure and policies
be reviewed by an executive committee of IAIMS that includes equal representation
for research care providers, and educators. This oversight committee should
work with the library to develop library access as an integral part of
the single point of entry for information systems as described in point
A. Discuss conversion to use of electronic journals.
E. Consolidation of information about information management.
One of the major frustrations in the use of information management
tools at this institution is the inability to identify the appropriate
office to handle problems (e.g. Information Technologies vs. Academic
Technologies vs. Networking Services). The development of an IAIMS
Home Page with a functional triage of information resources will
effectively alleviate this issue.
-
Central Support for Evaluation and Implementation of Specialized
Resources.
As a part of the IAIMS process, a support mechanism for evaluating
and implementing specialized resources should be developed. As noted above,
this kind of support is nearly impossible to ferret out in the present
system and should be immediately accessible through the IAIMS web page.
-
Provide Electronic Access for Extramural Researchers.
A major advantage of the single point of entry into information systems
available at WVU will be the effective maintenance of intramural and extramural
resources. There will be increasing collaborative research projects with
universities, hospitals, and physicians in West Virginia and outside the
state and information resources must be made available to collaborating
investigators. This will include electronic communication between sites
via high-band width connectivity for data transmission.
