This application is a request for a shared computer facility to be used by PHS funded investigators in the Departments of Ophthalmology and Community and Family Medicine at Georgetown University Medical Center. The project team consists of 13 funded investigators representing a total of 14 active reliable and rapid data processing facilities. All projects included are hampered by the computer facilities currently available for use. Our ability to take on new research projects is severely limited as well. The collaboration between the two departments in the area of health services research is quite close, with three faculty members holding joint appointments. The availability of a shared computer facility will served to foster that collaboration and enhance our ability to take on additional research projects together. Our PHS support comes from 5 separate institutes: The National Eye Institute (NIH), the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, The National Health Lung and Blood Institute (NIH), the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIH), and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (ADAMHA). Because of this multiversity of funding sources. We are requesting a RISC (Reduced instruction set computing) facility based upon a Solbourne series 5/604 file server, 3 Solbourne series 5/501 workstations, and a Sony 30 gigabyte optical jukebox for mass storage. Georgetown University is able to meet the site requirements (space, power, cooling) for this facility and the existing ethernet wiring will connect the three user groups with the main file server and optical jukebox. This facility will entirely eliminate our need to purchase time on currently inadequate mainframe computer facilities. The proposed computer facility will be 85% utilized on current PHS funded research, leaving a 15% reserve for pending PHS applications and pilot studies. Three major user groups will benefit from the availability of this resource. The Worthen Center for Eye Care Research is an endowed research center dedicated to epidemiology, clinical trials, and health services research. The Department of Community and Family Medicine similarly supports an active group of funded investigators in the area of health services research with similar data analysis needs. The Ophthalmology Research Laboratory of the department of Ophthalmology maintains an active, PHS funded facility dedicated to basic research with an emphasis on computer-intensive and storage-intensive image analysis of ocular tissues. The computer capability described in this application is essential if data and analysis is to go forward.
