Cancer Informatics Services (CIS)

Overview

Researchers cannot provide all of the necessary elements to support clinical and research based information intensive studies in a cost effective and efficient manner. Regardless of specialty, cancer research requires a robust architecture of software, hardware, and information technology professionals to develop and maintain needed IT tools. The Cancer Informatics Services (CIS) seeks to offset the typical barriers to informatics application, such as the cost of equipment, the rapid pace of technology development, and the specialized expertise required for proper management. The CIS at UPCI is composed of the following tightly integrated services:

  1. Clinical Trials Management Application - supporting all of the clinical trials of UPCI
  2. Tissue Banking and Pathology Tools - supporting pathologic annotation and inventory control of the biospecimen (tissue, blood, serum, and body fluids) requests of UPCI researchers
  3. Registry Research Information Services - supporting all of the clinical and outcomes annotation of patients in clinical trials and patients who contribute their cancer tissues to the tissue bank
  4. Honest Broker Services - a privacy protection component necessary to maintain HIPAA-compliant research information services
  5. Storage, Archival, and Network Services - fulfilling the needs of the UPCI for a robust network and storage solution for clinical trials, tissue banking, imaging, and genomic and proteomic data archiving, all of which is actively maintained and backed up

As the UPCI grows in diversity and size, it becomes increasingly challenging to support a centralized data structure which benefits both laboratory researchers and practicing physicians. CIS ensures that laboratory research and clinical research are integrated into the same information services system, thus maximizing the benefits of research.