Processing data can be agonizingly slow if you’re not using all the resources available to you.
Ashok Mudgapalli, Ph.D., likens it to cars using only one lane of a 50-lane highway during rush hour.
Director of the newly created Research Information Technology Office (RITO) core facility at UNMC, Dr. Mudgapalli helps researchers maximize use of their current technology and store data safely.
Recently, Dr. Mudgapalli provided just that kind of technical advice to a researcher in the College of Public Health, who wondered why the research data he was uploading to a server was taking so long to process.
“It was like he was running on only one lane in his computer when he had 49 others to use,” Dr.
Mudgapalli said. “By simply adjusting what he had programmed the software to do, I was able to increase the speed with which the data was being analyzed.”
Navigating computer software and programs is great when everything runs smoothly and a nightmare when it doesn’t, he said. He’s become the IT savior for researchers.
Since joining UNMC in 2013, Dr. Mudgapalli has met with researchers across campus to discuss their IT needs and he’s worked on developing an enterprise-wide storage solution. Now researchers can use several research data storage options.
The Enterprise Integrated Data Warehouse (EIDW) is being built based on data from the electronic health record database, and various departmental research registries. A software platform called Informatics for Integrating Biology & the Bedside is used to host and provide the EIDW-identified and de-identified data for clinical research.
UNMC has received funding from the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) Network to create a de-identified patient data registry for the newly created Greater Plains Consortium for Comparative Effectiveness Research. The project is overseen by principal investigator, Russ Waitman, Ph.D., University of Kansas Medical Center, and, at UNMC, by site director, James McClay, M.D., associate professor of emergency medicine in the UNMC College of Medicine.
The de-identified patient data will be used to support clinical research at UNMC and allow researchers to participate in national clinical effectiveness trials sponsored by PCORI.
“UNMC wouldn’t be able to participate in this institute-funded project without the ability of the RITO to quickly install and configure the necessary systems,” Dr. McClay said. “The infrastructure we are putting in place will serve the entire clinical research enterprise at UNMC.”
Dr. Mudgapalli is nearing completion of the repository, which he hopes to have done by summer.
Creating the data warehouse is just one of the many endeavors with which Dr. Mudgapalli is helping researchers and clinicians.
If they have a question about the type of hard drive or software to purchase, he will recommend what to buy based on individual need, even going so far as to negotiate with a retailer to get the best price.
If it’s data management and storage, Dr. Mudgapalli has implemented several solutions that researchers can use, including Cloud data storage, server integration and an online tool.
“Each faculty member is given 25 gigabytes of space per year for research data without cost. Beyond that amount, a number of options for storage of research data are available based on the type of data to be stored,” he said.
Ideally, Dr. Mudgapalli would like to see an enterprise grade storage solution used. Without it, the huge amounts of data generated will remain stored on hard drives in different labs across campus, he said.
An enterprise grade storage solution would help protect researcher’s data from such risks as fire, water, chemical erosion, natural disaster and unpredictable human behavior.
Dr. Mudgapalli also helps UNMC researchers access REDCap (Research Electronic Data Capture), the University of Vanderbilt’s secure web application tool, to manage clinical research projects and trials and build online surveys.
Since he introduced the tool to investigators last year, the number of projects that use the software increased from 50 to more than 300.
Dr. Mudgapalli continues to work with investigators to solve research IT problems and connect investigators across campus and at other universities and countries.