Tag: NIH

NIH SharePoint Modernization

Posted on by Alix Ganga

Congratulations to LCG’s team at NIH’s Office of Strategic Coordination (OSC), who diligently worked over three years to modernize and upgrade 35 SharePoint sites from the legacy on-premises SharePoint 2019 platform to SharePoint Online. Our team developed custom interactive and responsive components using SharePoint Framework (SPFx), React, and TypeScript, allowing seamless integration with SharePoint data and services for a personalized and modern user experience.

When modernizing legacy tech, the act of translating old functionality to new frameworks remains essential to delivering on customer needs. The team attempted to make the custom SharePoint Online site more functional, while easing the end-user transition by retaining familiar SharePoint 2019 elements.

The team integrated features such as breadcrumb navigation, created reusable component libraries to modularize and design site architecture, developed User Acceptance Testing (UAT) cases, and addressed challenges such as custom actions not being able to translate 1:1 from SharePoint 2019 to SharePoint Online.

The following team members worked directly on this migration project and received high satisfaction marks from NIH’s OSC:

  • Sreepallavi Thota
  • Raja Ganapathi
  • Rupinder Kaur
  • Sumitra Sampath
  • Fern Wildesen

Modernizing Legacy Data: AudBase

Posted on by Alix Ganga

Building customer-focused solutions aren’t just buzz words at successful companies – it’s part of the corporate DNA. It starts at the top with strong leadership vision and it multiplies across departments with employees breaking down silos to serve the company and customer missions.

A recent example comes from our client, the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) – one of 27 Institutes and Centers at NIH – where Ravi Kosuri of LCG recently received the Director’s Award for his work on NIDCD’s Audiology project.

NIDCD’s Audiology project was a small part of a very large project the LCG team was working on in 2022.

The larger project had an extensive project management plan with timelines, tasks, and deliverables identified upfront with the customer. An immediate need was identified to provide NIDCD Audiology staff with a way to read and process data from the AudBase system.

The team’s approach was quickly shifted to progressive elaboration by LCG’s project manager, Ashley Stanton. Progressive elaboration is an iterative Agile project management technique that allows for a project plan to evolve as information is gathered. This approach, as well as its short turnaround time, made the AudBase project very unusual from the start.

Even when the pressure was on to rapidly turn the new project, time had to be spent in the early days determining the foundational nature of the challenge. Since the service delivery team was deeply embedded in the project, they worked with customer stakeholders to understand their needs. Multiple technical options and their impact were researched with cost and risk analyses so the team could recommend the path forward. Ravi worked collaboratively with the developer, third-party vendors, and government employees to implement a cloud-based database solution that met NIDCD’s needs on time and under budget.

By conceptualizing the best solution and accomplishing the client’s goals and objectives on the tight timeline, Ravi’s team successfully delivered a:

  • Web service interface (Azure-hosted API interface with AudBase)
  • Data transformation engine (JSON parser)
  • Cloud-based relational database
  • Accessible interface for third-party applications (such as RedCap, QlikSense, or Power BI)

Not only did Ravi receive the NIH Director’s award but the entire LCG team was recognized by the Center for Information Technology (CIT) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as one of the pioneers in using the NIH Azure Science and Technology Research Infrastructure for Discovery, Experimentation, and Sustainability (STRIDES) Initiative.

The end result is a new concept and technique for conducting and supporting biomedical and behavioral research and research training in the normal and disordered processes of hearing, balance, smell, taste, voice, speech, and language.

Ravi Kosuri is LCG’s principal architect supporting the life science advancements in biomedical research at NIDCD.

ADVISORY: New NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy Affects CIOs

Posted on by Alix Ganga

A new NIH Data Management & Sharing Policy will go into effect January 25, 2023. While the focus is on the new responsibilities of researchers, the policy will have an impact on NIH Chief Information Officers (CIOs). Here is what CIOs need to know.

Scientific data is sufficient quality to validate and replicate research findings, regardless of usage in support of scholarly publications.

First, the policy applies to all research, funded or conducted in whole or in part by NIH, that results in the generation of scientific data.”1

Investigators and institutions are required to:

  • Plan and budget for managing and sharing scientific data generated by NIH funded research.
  • Prepare and submit a Data Management and Sharing (DMS) Plan during the funding application process.
  • Comply with the approved DMS Plan.

For CIOs, the policy triggers new procedures and oversight on an Institute or Center (IC) basis for both extramural and intramural research. CIOs should expect new queries from researchers about available repositories for data sharing. In addition, proactive communication about access and security considerations will prevent future challenges.

Data Management and Sharing Plans

Each NIH Intramural Research Program (IRP) determines the procedures for submitting and managing DMS Plans. CIOs should engage with the appropriate IRP offices to advise and assist.

CIOs supporting extramural research grant application and funding systems will need to add associated features and functionality to capture and store DMS Plans.

Supplemental policy guidance provides details about expected contents for DMS Plans and recommends a length of two pages or less.2 Exhibit 1 summarizes the DMS Plan content expectations.

Exhibit 1. Summary of Data Management and Sharing Plan Content Elements

ElementDescription
Data TypeSummarize data types and amount, may describe data modality, level of aggregation, degree of data processing

Describe scientific data planned for preservation and sharing with reasoning behind ethical, legal, and technical factor decisions

Brief list of metadata, other relevant data, and associated documentations planned for facilitating scientific data interpretation
Related Tools, Software and/or CodeIdentify any specialized tools needed to access or manipulate the shared scientific data for replication or reuse
StandardsDescribe planned standards for application to scientific data and metadata, for example, data formats, data dictionaries, data identifiers, definitions, unique identifiers, and other data documentation
Data Preservation, Access, and Associated TimelinesDescribe plan and timeline for:
Name of repository identified for scientific data and metadata archivalHow the scientific data will be findable and identifiableWhen, and for how long, the scientific data will be available
Access, Distribution, or Reuse ConsiderationsIdentify applicable considerations for subsequent access, distribution, or reuse related to informed consent, privacy and confidentiality protections, control of data derived from humans, regulatory or policy restrictions, other potential limitations
Oversight of Data Management and SharingIdentify institutional oversight roles and responsibilities for monitoring and managing compliance with the documented plan

References

1.       Research Covered Under the Data Management & Sharing Policy | Data Sharing. Accessed October 18, 2022. https://sharing.nih.gov/data-management-and-sharing-policy/about-data-management-and-sharing-policy/research-covered-under-the-data-management-sharing-policy

2.       Writing a Data Management & Sharing Plan | Data Sharing. Accessed December 14, 2022. https://sharing.nih.gov/data-management-and-sharing-policy/planning-and-budgeting-for-data-management-and-sharing/writing-a-data-management-and-sharing-plan#elements-to-include-in-a-data-management-and-sharing-plan

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