Network and Desktop: During the past year, the Computer Support Services Core (CSSC) continued supporting reliable, secure, and efficient information technology solutions. This includes acquisition, maintenance, and support for licensed software used by our DIR research community e.g., GraphPad Prism, Amira, DNASTAR Lasergene, MathWorks MATLAB, SnapGene, and FlowJo, as well as network services (email, data backups, VPN, helix, PDAs, wireless configurations) and cross-platform desktop, server and application hosting in the Rock Spring and Bldg. 35 Data Centers. We also assist users in identifying, researching and purchasing custom hardware configurations to match research instrument requirements. Data Recovery Services: Core data recovery tools were implemented for all media: hard drive, SSD, and flash etc., including RAID 0 and 5 recovery tools. Since 2005, the Core has recovered over five Terabytes of research data from failed drives and media and saving many thousands of dollars in recovery costs. Clinical informatics: CSSC continued to support and develop applications related to clinical and translational medicine, including the Clinical Trials Database (CTDB) project. Such informatics tools allow researchers to design, collect, and report clinical observations related to natural history and interval-based studies. The total number of protocols and research projects supported by the CTDB team increased to 605 for 15 NIH institutes, with an expansion of research questions to over 240,000. Since its inception, data from CTDB supported 1500 NICHD publications. Our software development group completed one release that included features for QA module, Biorepository, Form Data download and various interface improvements.. Our database development and reporting team continued to migrate protocol data from various NIH institutes, while supplying reporting for protocols within CTDB. New data-marts (pft, exercise data and six minutes walk) and reporting functionalities were added to the CTDB data-mart allowing users to combine and retrieve additional information. We also supported the Clinical Trial Survey System (CTSS), an application for patient surveys, used for 68 active protocols; 101 CTSS websites were archived in 2019. Biological visualization web services: The CSSC team provided DIR laboratories with scientific communications and media services, including publication support, website support, audio/visual production, and print media. Those services were provided to: The NICHD DIR Annual Report, the DIR Annual Fellows and Scientific Retreats, the DIR Annual Fellows and Scientific Retreats, the Anita B. Roberts Lecture Series, the annual Mortimer B. Lipsett Lecture, the NICHD Exchange lecture series, NICHD research labs and medical training programs including the Pediatric Endocrinology Training Program and Inter-Institute Adult Endocrinology training program. Services included recording audio and video of presenters. We supported the NICHD Office of Education by producing a monthly newsletter, The NICHD Connection, in collaboration with Intramural Fellows. We created print collateral for conferences including the NICHD Scientific Retreat, and NICHD Fellows Retreat, and updated recruitment materials for NICHDs clinical training programs. We also continued maintaining websites for the NICHD DIR Annual Report and Annual Fellows Retreat The CSSC continued to provide a platform for conducting scientific review by the Board of Scientific Counselors, administrative intranet support and business operations. In 2019 we supported the migration of the public facing laboratory websites from Confluence wiki to Drupal. The plan for Science NICHD (http://science.nichd.nih.gov) is to keep hosting NICHD DIR internal sites. The activities of the DIRweb services program included: laboratory websites, annual report, and internet applications. DIRweb includes a lab training web services for the NIH Enterprise Directory and Division of Occupational Health and Safety Training. The team continued to release enhancements to the Fellows Annual Progress Report; a unified means for tracking and mentoring intramural trainees along with easing the re-appointment process. This solution provided the Office of Education useful metrics regarding mentoring and training programs. The Exit Survey feature - a short survey allowing DIR trainees a platform for providing feedback- has also been updated for DIR Fellows;. We continued developing the new Package Tracking module for the DIR Administrative Management Branch, providing AMB staff real-time accuracy metrics for personnel and travel package compilation. A feedback system was developed to support real-time customer satisfaction collection for the AMB, Office of the Clinical Director, and laboratory administrative support staff. This system also offers more detailed feedback submissions periodically along with comprehensive response metrics.
