Great Plains IDeA-CTR

Biomedical Informatics, Bioinformatics, and Cyberinfrastructure Enhancement Project Summary: The Biomedical Informatics, Bioinformatics, and Cyberinfrastructure Enhancement (BIBCE) Core offers a robust and agile biomedical informatics infrastructure for the Great Plains (GP) IDeA-CTR members with cutting-edge support tools, expertise and training across bio-, clinical-, and public health informatics realms. Extensive reliance on genetic and molecular data in clinical practice has become a game-changer in health care practice, especially in the emerging field of precision medicine. Hence, clinical and translational research (CTR) needs a range of support, from data collection and analysis to data integration and correlation, to make clinically relevant inferences effectively. However, it is extremely challenging for individual institutions to locally develop and maintain sophisticated infrastructure and technical expertise in this rapidly changing field. The primary objective of the BIBCE Core is to develop expertise, tools, and services and make them accessible across all institutions of the GP IDeA-CTR network. Collecting and connecting data from the molecular level to population level, the BIBCE Core will provide access to a robust suite of tools for regional CTR endeavors while building the overall CTR capacity of the GP IDeA-CTR network. While Nebraska has an extensive telehealth network that links all public educational facilities and hospitals, informatics tools and expert support are essential to generate multi-institutional collaborations in CTR, and having a centrally supported core will be pivotal to accomplish the mission of GP IDeA-CTR. The BIBCE Core will support this mission with four specific aims: 1) Augment CTR capacity by leveraging existing infrastructure, networking, and creative collaborations among GP IDeA-CTR, institutional, and other IDeA-funded projects; 2) Integrate and streamline access to genomics-based and health data, biobanks & registries, electronic health records, and decision support systems across the network to promote translational precision health research; 3) Connect the clinical informatics resources with CTSA’s National Center for Data to Health (CD2H) and other CTR centers to facilitate easy access and stimulate feasibility studies, outcomes research, and CTR; and 4) Support data sharing, knowledge and resource sharing, and training using cyberinfrastructure enhancement to reach out to the populations in the GP IDeA-CTR network. The BIBCE Core will have a profound impact on the success of GP IDeA-CTR through augmenting the overall research capacity in the realms of clinical, translational, and precision health; bolstering collaborations through team science within as well as across the IDeA networks; streamlining informatics resources; aligning the regional CTR with national efforts for interoperability; and sharing knowledge with new courses and training activities.