Tobacco regulatory science (TRS) is a relatively new field which aims to gather information and knowledge needed for evidence-based regulatory decisions on tobacco products. The definition and use of common study variables, criteria, and protocols by the TRS community are critical for future analyses of the data aggregated across studies. In the era of information technology, a web-based information framework is critical to facilitate data sharing among researchers, support the training of the next generation of TRS researchers, foster team collaboration, as well as serve as a gateway for TRS-related information. In addition, the implementation of portfolio analysis as well as bibliometric and content analysis can assess the current research success, provide synthesized evidence for regulatory decisions, identify gaps, and inform future research. The ASC, in partnership with the Steering Committee, FDA/NIH staff, TCORS programs, and other TRS stakeholders plan to achieve the following aims: 1) establish and operate a Data Coordination Committee (DCC) to govern the establishment of sharing standards, resources, and repositories and the adoption and use of standardized measures, methods, and data management to facilitate data harmonization;2) apply advanced natural language processing (NLP), ontology and semantic web technologies to build a TRS ontology, annotate TRS resources semantically, and support PhenX in the establishment of common TRS measures;3) develop the Tobacco Regulatory Science Information Network (TobRegSIF) governed by DCC to survey the current ecosystem of TRS resources, establish a semantic search engine for locating, accessing, and using the TRS resources, support data sharing and facilitate the use of common measures, and implement and disseminate TRS-related information to the public;4) conduct portfolio, bibliometric, and content analysis, topic modeling, and network analysis to a wide range of structured and unstructured data to integrate, analyze and synthesize TRS data available from diverse data sources, identify gaps, suggest new opportunities, foster collaborations, and assess the impact of TRS research to regulatory decision making.
The Analytics and Synthesis Core will support the goal of gathering information and knowledge needed for evidence-based decisions on the regulation of tobacco products by coordinating data-related activities, such as standardization and harmonization, of scientists studying tobacco products and regulation
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