Providing researchers with online access to NHLBI biospecimen collections: The results of the first six years of the NHLBI BioLINCC program

Carol A Giffen; Elizabeth L Wagner; John T Adams; Denise M Hitchcock; Lisbeth A Welniak; Sean P Brennan; Leslie E Carroll

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0178141

Providing researchers with online access to NHLBI biospecimen collections: The results of the first six years of the NHLBI BioLINCC program

PLoS One. 2017 Jun 14;12(6):e0178141. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0178141. eCollection 2017.

Authors

Carol A Giffen¹, Elizabeth L Wagner², John T Adams¹, Denise M Hitchcock¹, Lisbeth A Welniak², Sean P Brennan¹, Leslie E Carroll¹

Affiliations

¹ Information Management Services, Inc., Calverton, Maryland, United States of America.
² Translational Blood Science and Resources Branch, Division of Blood Diseases and Resources, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America.

Abstract

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), within the United States' National Institutes of Health (NIH), established the Biologic Specimen and Data Repository Information Coordinating Center (BioLINCC) in 2008 to develop the infrastructure needed to link the contents of the NHLBI Biorepository and the NHLBI Data Repository, and to promote the utilization of these scientific resources by the broader research community. Program utilization metrics were developed to measure the impact of BioLINCC on Biorepository access by researchers, including visibility, program efficiency, user characteristics, scientific impact, and research types. Input data elements were defined and are continually populated as requests move through the process of initiation through fulfillment and publication. This paper reviews the elements of the tracking metrics which were developed for BioLINCC and reports the results for the first six on-line years of the program.

MeSH terms

Biological Specimen Banks / organization & administration*
Humans
Internet
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (U.S.)
National Institutes of Health (U.S.)
Program Development
Specimen Handling / methods*
United States

Grants and funding

This program is funded under a contract mechanism (HHSN268201400014C) by the US National Institutes of Health/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NIH/NHLBI). The support provider is Information Management Services, Inc., and as noted in the letter several of the authors including myself are employees of that company. The sole purpose of the contract is to provide analytic, statistical, biomedical, logistical, and web services support to design and maintain the BioLINCC program under the technical direction of NIH/NHLBI scientific staff. These scientific staff, two of whom are listed as co-authors, are fully engaged in program design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish and in the preparation of this particular manuscript. My staff at IMS, Inc., are also fully engaged in these activities in support of the NHLBI BioLINCC initiative as a whole. IMS staff are on the IMS payroll, and as individuals do not receive funding directly from NIH/NHLBI (nor from any other government support contract held by IMS) - IMS provides its services to NIH/NHLBI as a work made for hire.