Health Sciences South Carolina (HSSC), today announced that it has selected Recombinant Data Corp. and Sun Microsystems, Inc. to collaborate on the Health Sciences South Carolina Integrated Platform for Research (HS-SCIPR), an unprecedented statewide initiative for translational research and quality improvement. The HS-SCIPR program supports the mission of HSSC to improve the health status and economic wellbeing of the residents of South Carolina.
The resulting capabilities will help providers collaborate on care and quality improvement initiatives through Health Information Exchange (HIE) and attract new investigators and investment by bio-pharmaceutical companies focused on improving patient care. The initiative spans the state’s largest research universities and healthcare systems including:
- Clemson University
- Greenville Hospital System University Medical Center
- Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC)
- Palmetto Health
- University of South Carolina
- Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System
The HS-SCIPR program is supported by innovative technologies already in development at HSSC, including the Research Permissions Management System, a portal that provides data privacy and governance controls for individual patients. Led by Jay Moskowitz, PhD, and Iain Sanderson, MSc, FRCA, it enables patients to search for and enroll in clinical trials, restrict access to their information and receive notification of future clinical trials for which they qualify.
“HSSC is committed to putting the patient at the center of the HS-SCIPR priorities. We are working to improve the health and wellbeing of the citizens of South Carolina and trust is the critical element,” stated Sanderson, chief medical information officer of HSSC and leader of the HS-SCIPR project. “With HS-SCIPR we are establishing a data framework to support interoperability and research starting with an Enterprise Master Patient Index (EMPI) and a clinical research data warehouse (CRDW). We chose Recombinant and Sun because of their proven ability to deliver these components and strong commitment to open architectures that put patients first.”
HSSC has contracted with Recombinant Data Corp. to integrate and support an open source technology stack that combines Sun’s Java CAPS 6 with the Informatics for Integrating Biology and the Bedside (i2b2) and caBIG® clinical research frameworks. Sun Java CAPS 6 components being leveraged include Master Data Management (based on Project Mural), GlassFish ESB and HL7 messaging, in addition to the LifeRay portal, all running on Sun hardware. The CRDW will be based on Recombinant’s Data Trust healthcare warehouse featuring an EMPI that will link patient records across systems into a single record. i2b2 and caBIG® tools will be deployed to provide a workbench for researchers to access clinical information from the repository through an IRB approval workflow and clinical trial recruitment processes managed through the consent portal.
“HSSC’s adoption of i2b2 and commitment to integration with related open source tools is helping to establish the constellation of integrated projects for translational research. The extension of these tools and the population associated with this project helps i2b2 fulfill our translational research mission to bridge clinical research data and basic science research,” stated Isaac Kohane, MD, PhD, professor of pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Children’s Hospital Boston, and principal investigator of i2b2.
HSSC selected Recombinant and Sun for their domain expertise and technology in commercial open source healthcare solutions. The use of open source enables HSSC to work in partnership with multiple Clinical and Translational Awards (CTSA) sites, leverage the efforts of shared innovation, and share new technologies developed through NIH grants and system improvement projects with peer organizations. The commercial open source support provided by the two software companies ensures that the choice of open source includes commercial enterprise class products that are reliable, indemnified, supported, and secure.
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