This contract provides funds for the Information Management Services Inc. (IMS) to support multiple data management tasks that support Cancer Diagnosis Program (CDP) activities. The contractor provides support for various activities related to cancer specimen resources created by the CDP such as Cooperative Human Tissue Network (CHTN), Cooperative Breast Cancer Tissue Resource (CBCTR), Group Banking Committee (GBC), colon carcinoma tissue microarray (TMA), and melanoma TMA to facilitate translational cancer research in the scientific community. Specifically, they provide support and bioinformatics tools with database design, implementation and database management. IMS also provides extensive information technology and biomedical computing support to coordinate and track usage of these cancer tissue specimen resources. They also help with coordination of tasks, meetings and conferences related to activities of these resources. They create secure web-based central portals using Plone for the CHTN, CBCTR, GBC, and Specialized Strategic Partnering to Evaluate Cancer Signatures Program (SPECS) projects and the Program for the Assessment of Clinical Cancer Tests (PACCT). These web sites facilitate organization of documents, contact lists, calendars, task lists, and email directories. In addition, data management support for special projects initiated by CDP is also provided by IMS. Activities include highly specialized statistical data processing for ongoing scientific projects including a colorectal cancer molecular marker study, gene expression data management in a lung cancer study, and TMA design and data analysis.
