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Plans Move Ahead for New Clinical Research Information System

Clinical Center News

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May 01, 2000

You may have heard the acronym “CRIS” tossed about lately. So, what is it?

CRIS stands for “Clinical Research Information System,” and it isn’t a stand-alone entity. Rather, according to Chief Information Officer Richard Gordon, “it is a suite of computer systems that will support many of the functional elements of the Clinical Center.” CRIS will eventually replace the aged Medical Information System, or MIS.

“While MIS has served the CC for 25 years, it does not support functions we need in today’s world, such as digital imaging. In areas where MIS could not meet a need, add-ons were devised, resulting in a patchwork of systems, interfaces, and networks that do not perform optimally together. The result is duplicated effort and limited access to clinical research data,” Gordon said.

Components of CRIS will include new systems for pharmacy, order entry, protocol management, medical-surgical care, charting, appointment scheduling, and imaging, among many others.

“The goal is to have all these systems be able to ‘talk’ to one another to provide investigators with access to real-time clinical research data,” Gordon said. “With CRIS, using a Windows-style interface, we’ll be able to take advantage of things like menu trees, color, and sound to see at a glance all the things that are associated with a patient, rather than having to flip through lots of screens of data, like we currently do with MIS.”

Oversight for CRIS is provided by a steering committee, chaired by NHLBI director Dr. Claude Lenfant.

A project-management team, headed by the CC’s Dr. Steve Rosenfeld, will deal with day-to-day decisions and details of the 5 -year, $40 million project.

The “requirements analysis” phase is underway. That means that a team is visiting all hospital areas to map out their processes and discuss how information technology can help them increase efficiency and effectiveness, both in the existing hospital and in the new Clinical Research Center. The team’s report is called for by summer’s end.

Then, an acquisition strategy will be mapped out. Gordon said that plans call for use of commercial, off- the-shelf applications wherever possible. MIS will continue to be used until CRIS is fully operational. Watch “Clinical Center News” for updates.