CTSC:ARRA.AdvisoryBoard.021511

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Harvard Catalyst Medical Informatics group, Advisory Board Meeting Minutes February 15, 2011

In attendance:

• Shawn Murphy
• Randy Gollub
• Chris Herrick
• Daniel Nigrin (phone)
• Diane Keough
• Valerie Humblet
• Sabune Winkler
• Scott Edmiston
• Kathy Andriole (phone)

1. Aim of mi2b2 project

• Shawn presented first a recall of the principal aim: The purpose of this Administrative Supplement project is to develop and disseminate additions to the Informatics for Integrating Biology and the Bedside (i2b2)-based projects to hospitals that will allow clinical imaging data from sophisticated medical imaging modalities such as MRI, PET, ultrasound and high-speed CT to be used for secondary research purposes.
• He insisted that mi2b2 can be implemented at any institution, whether or not there is already i2b2 at that institution.
• The entire workflow needs to be IRB approved, each individual project needs to be approved.
• Right now there is no inter-site distribution of images.

2. Progress to date

• mi2b2 is up and running at CHB, BWH and MGH.
• the mi2b2 cell serves as a filter for request, it knows who is allowed to make request and on which patients. The cell then contact the PACS. Images comes out of the PACS at a buffer rate and are sent into a cache directory. The PI then can move the images from the cache to his own location where he will be working on the data (that location will be specify in the IRB)
• Shawn made a demonstration of the different steps involved in a query/retrieve.

3. Rules for frequency / timing of downloads for studies

• Each site can customize the image flow parameters from the PACS for each Application Entity (IP address in PACS):
  • Between time#1and time#2
  • On Day of the Week
  • Do image downloads/hour
  • For x many at a time
  • Delay x minutes between images
• Workflow controlled by researchers, requests are queued and prioritized
  • Achieves scalability for the enterprise
  • Achieves autonomy for the researcher

4. Next step: Audit for Human Subject Privacy Plan

• Follow common i2b2 plan as for other clinical data types:
  • Query in aggregate
  • Submit IRB proposal for specific hypothesis & detailed data request
  • PI of approved study given identifiable data in secure transfer
  • IRB can audit all data transfers