Data Bus
Cooperation optimization program of the Medical University of Gdańsk (GUMed) with the University Clinical Centre (UCK) for the effective use of medical data during research projects
Clinical data is one of the key significant resources in all activity fields of the Medical University of Gdańsk. They are used in research, teaching, clinical trials and other tasks that enable the progress of medicine. Currently, the process of acquiring clinical data is complex, labor-intensive, requires long completion times, and involves IT professionals and research and teaching staff on the university side, as well as clinical administrative staff. This is caused by lack of effective IT tools to support data extraction from clinical information systems, anonymization, and sharing.
Thanks to the close cooperation between Medical University of Gdańsk and University Clinical Centre, we are dealing with a mutual transfer of knowledge and experiences. Both entities are driven by shared values in the social dimension and share the benefits of collaboration. The development of an IT system enabling the acquisition of large volumes of data in a wide range of subjects in an automated manner, is a joint project of the MUG and the UCC. The Data Bus project is implemented under the “Excellence Initiative – Research University” Program.
The project involves the acquisition of clinical data in electronic form from UCC’s IT systems, transforming them into anonymized form (eliminating personal data from the perspective of the applicable GDPR/RODO regulations), cleaning various types of errors, formatting them, and making the data available to the MUG research employees in a form suitable for their research projects.
Compared to the status quo, the Data Bus will provide:
- better quality of clinical data made available to researchers;
- a wider range of structured clinical data and imaging data;
- enabling clinical data to be obtained in shorter time, while eliminating the need for IT specialists;
- increasing the security of shared data, mainly due to unauthorized access to data and data leakage outside the MUG.
The digitization of the approval obtaining process for research projects and applying for clinical data at UCC is a significant part of the project. This will allow the acquisition of a complete database of ongoing research projects, researchers involved in the projects, and the range of clinical data made available for the projects. It will be possible to monitor the process of obtaining approvals and applying for clinical data, whereas automation will improve efficiency.
Wojciech Kiedrowski is the program manager, focusing on activities involving the acquisition and processing of clinical data for the purposes of scientific research. The implementation team includes: Dr. Habil. Tomasz Stokowy from the University of Bergen, and Mariusz Budzisz and Dariusz Szplit, representing the University Clinical Center The subject matter consultants are representatives of Science: Anna Supernat Ph.D., Natalia Filipowicz Ph.D., Maciej Bobowicz Ph.D.
The first phase of the Data Bus project is currently underway, which will result in the development of a prototype that will enable automatic acquisition of structured data from the Clininet clinical system. The prototype solution will enable limited data acquisition. Subsequent development versions will expand this scope, according to the current demand for data from MUG’s researchers. The development of the Data Bus system will therefore be incremental.
There will also be a digitally automated process for applying for for research project approvals, and as part of that: a process for applying for clinical data. The solution for electronic document circulation and workflow is implemented on the basis of the WEBCON system.
The first phase of system development is expected to be completed by the turn of June and July 2022.
CONTACT
Wojciech Kiedrowski
Phone: 58 349 17 12
wojciech.kiedrowski@gumed.edu.pl