CLL Research Consortium (CRC)
The CLL Research Consortium is a multi-institutional translational research program project, funded by the National Cancer Institute. The Consortium includes the following clinical sites: University of California, San Diego; M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, The Ohio State University, Johns Hopkins University, Long Island Jewish Medical Center, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Mayo Clinic, and several sites that perform laboratory work alone, including the Burnham Institute and St. Bart's of London. These institutions see a diverse patient population and all possess high quality basic science laboratories. Bringing these sites together in the context of the CRC has resulted in a program that is much more than the sum of its parts.
The collection, storage and exchange of data among Consortium participants are of paramount importance for the conduct of projects that involve collaboration between CRC investigators. The development of information systems that meet the multitude of requirements inherent to such a diverse group is challenging at best. Because of the diversity of Consortium projects and cores the information collection is not only varied, but also conceptual and technically complex. The CRC’s purpose in developing information systems has been to create systems that are not only functional for the CRC, but also to increase the state-of-knowledge within the field of biomedical informatics and develop tools that can be generalized to other biomedical research programs. All of the above complexities require dedicated resources, domain expertise and high-quality project management.
The creation of the CRC Biomedical Informatics (CBMI) Workgroup, and resulting information systems generated and managed by that workgroup have provided the CRC with its CRC Integrated Information Management System (CIMS). CIMS combines the needs of basic scientists, clinicians and administrators in a single conceptual information management system. While numerous information technology solutions have been developed for application in the constituent activities of translational research (e.g. clinical trials management, basic science data collection, etc.), there exists a paucity of integrated systems which provide a single conceptual and logical approach to the representation and presentation of information spanning the complete spectrum of activities inherent to translational research programs. With this in mind, the CBMI workgroup established the goals of developing a novel architectural model that would provide for a shared information management infrastructure for all CRC research activities.
Building upon this infrastructure, the CBMI was then subsequently able to implement task-specific web applications to satisfy the major information management needs of the consortium. Finally, through the ongoing development of a data warehouse and query facility, the CBMI workgroup is able to provide a single-point of access to the rich data set captured via the aforementioned web applications. Through this combination of shared infrastructure, web applications and data warehousing, the CRC is able to provide a uniquely cohesive suite of information management tools that provide for a true collaborative environment among the consortiums member sites. Such an approach is pioneering in both design and implementation, and as such, not only enables the cutting-edge research of the CRC, but also contributes to the state of knowledge concerning informatics in the translational research domain.
For more information, please contact Phillip Payne or visit the CRC website.
Project Researchers
Philip Payne, Ph.D (Informatics Architect)