Our understanding of individual and population health status, including the development of innovative approaches to disease identification and treatment, is increasingly based on the availability and analyses of real- world data (RWD) collected from environments where routine care is provided (e.g., electronic health records (EHRs), claims and billing activities). When consolidated into clinical research data warehouses (CRDWs), RWD become a critical source for medical data mining supporting clinical research/trials, as well as informing healthcare in all facets of medicine. The goal of the Biomedical Informatics, Bioinformatics, and Cyberinfrastructure Enhancement Core (BiBEC) is to strengthen and expand the tools and resources that supply real world data specific to Hispanic populations, and develop programs that prepare skilled informaticians. In addition, BiBEC is committed to increasing knowledge in biomedical informatics, bioinformatics, and health informatics so that clinicians as well as clinical and translational researchers are informed consumer of said services, understanding their applications in both clinical care and research environments. The central hypothesis of the aims presented here is that informatics tools, and the necessary resources to fully utilize these tools, can advance health and healthcare at all nodes along the clinical and translational research pathway.
The specific aims of BiBEC are to: 1) strengthen and expand existing health data infrastructure to improve clinical care and best practices (electronic health records/clinical research data warehouse), 2) enhance the availability and recruitment opportunities of Puerto Rican and other Hispanic populations into clinical and translational research studies using technology-based innovations, and 3) develop training for clinicians and clinical and translational researchers which will enable their use and application of available biomedical, bioinformatic, and health informatics-related data and technologies. The innovation of BiBEC includes: 1) an operational, secure clinical research data warehouse; 2) bilingual website that proactively supports the promotion of clinical trial opportunities, with a community-facing web portal, where individuals may register as a volunteer in clinical trials; 3) FISMA and HIPAA-compliant web-based data collection tools; and 4) training and continuing education in biomedical informatics, health informatics, and bioinformatics that helps clinicians and clinical researchers be informed consumers of biomedical and bioinformatics information and tools.
