The main mission of the Cancer Research Informatics Office (CRIO) is to coordinate and lead efforts in cancer data collection, storage, management, integration, mining, analysis, and sharing with the ultimate goal to foster comprehensive studies of risk factors of cancer development and progression and to enable the design of novel strategies for prevention, screening, early detection, and personalized treatment of cancer.
The CRIO uses a collaborative, responsive, integrated and focused approach to all aspects of systems development and support. The Office utilizes metadata-driven software architecture and implements semantic interoperability by utilizing data standards and taxonomies to harmonize and transform data from external data sources to allow computable data availability for research analytics. This approach ensures findability, accessibility, interoperability, and re-usability of collected data.
The staff of the Office:
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provides data stewardship and facilitates standardized data integration, reporting and sharing
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develops, maintains and supports disease-specific registries and tools for data collection, reporting, visualization, and mining
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supports, maintains, expands, and continuously improves the integrated Cancer Repository for Cancer Research (iCaRe2) and associated tools
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maintains and supports biospecimen data management system (OpenSpecimen)
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acts as an honest broker for research studies involving patient data
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consults users in utilizing informatics tools and methods
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educates investigators on the requirements, standards and approaches that enhance data collection, management, mining, and sharing
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provides informatics support for the cancer research projects and the Cancer Center’s administration
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identifies and implements software and database solutions to support the Cancer Center’s goals