Information Resources

and Technology
Henry Lowe M.D.
Senior Associate Dean
Information Resources and Technology

We facilitate excellence in education, biomedical

and clinical research, and patient care through the
application of innovative and effective information
resources and technology

Definitions
Information Technology is the use of
hardware, software, services, and supporting
infrastructure to manage and deliver

information.
Informatics is the scientific field that deals with
biomedical information, data and knowledge their storage, retrieval and optimal use for

problem-solving and decision-making.

Knowledge Management is the collection

of processes that govern the creation,
dissemination, and utilization of knowledge

IRT Goals

Become a leader in the effective use of innovative

information technology (IT) in biomedicine
Integrate IT, informatics and knowledge
management resources to support the biomedical
mission
Plan and implement IRT collaboratively
Have IRT driven by a coherent strategic plan
Support the Stanford Biomedical Communitys
clinical, research and educational missions

Information Resources
and Technology (IRT)
Senior Associate Dean position created March 2002

Our mandate is to develop, collaboratively, an effective IT

strategy for the Stanford Biomedical Community

Provide state-of-the-art IT infrastructure and services

Support access to and management of knowledge resources

Couple applied informatics with our needs

Integration of MedIT, SUMMIT and Lane Library

IRT strategic planning completed September 2002

IRT Strategic Planning Group

Carole Buffum - Executive Director, Finance and Administration
Parvati Dev - Associate Dean for Learning Technologies, IRT
Jin Hahn - Associate Professor Of Neurology and Pediatrics

Rob Krochak - DFA, Department of Pathology

Michael Levitt - Professor Of Structural Biology and Computer
Science
Henry Lowe - Senior Associate Dean IRT

Shannon Moffett - Medical Student

Don Regula - Associate Professor of Pathology
Valerie Su - Acting Director, Lane Library
Gerry Weitz - Director of Operations, IRT

David OBrien - Director, Office of Institutional Planning

IRT Organization

Senior Associate Dean

Information Resources and Technology
Henry Lowe

Director of
IT operations
Gerry Weitz

Associate Dean
Learning Technologies
Parvati Dev

Director
Lane Library
Valerie Su (Acting)

Director
IT Development
Henry Lowe (Acting)

Director
Privacy & Data Security
Todd Ferris

Director
Finance & Admin
To Be recruited

Collaborative IRT Planning

is Critical

The future of biomedicine is interdisciplinary

There is a Stanford Biomedical Community
The Hospitals, School of Medicine, Clark Center,
Bioengineering

If translational research is to be successful,

information must flow effectively within this

community

Biomedical IRT planning and implementation

must be a collaborative community process

University

Hospitals

School

Our Development Model

Research
Education

Clinical

Stanford
Biomedicine Community

Applications and Services

Support, Training, Advocacy & Planning
Information Acquisition, Hosting, Management & Access
Knowledge Access and Delivery
INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY

KNOWLEDGE
MANAGEMENT

INFORMATICS

Infrastructure
Expertise Network

Data Center

Security Knowledge Resources Planning

Major Strategic Themes

Ubiquitous access to information

Data privacy and security
The Library as a Knowledge Management
Center

The Internet as a communications medium

IRT as an innovative force in education
Translational Informatics
Enabling the translational research mission

Ubiquitous Access to Information

The future of computing rests on a wireless

always on network connection.

Wireless networking is progressing rapidly

Mobile computing devices are becoming

smaller, cheaper, more powerful and better

integrated

Biomedical workers are often nomadic

Major transforming potential in the clinical,
research and educational environments

What IRT is Doing

Implementing an enterprise-wide wireless

network

Convened a joint School-University-Hospital

secure wireless planning committee.

Appointed an Associate Director of Wireless

Applications Development

Mandated secure wireless network standards

Positioning all key information resources to be
wireless-accessible

Information Privacy and Security

New Federal and State regulations mandate
significant changes in how we handle information

Our ability and willingness to protect privacy and

secure information will become critical

Our clinical and translational research missions are

at particular risk

An issue in negotiating access to clinical data

What IRT is Doing

Created a process within the School to

manage HIPAA implementation

Convened a joint School-University-Hospital

committee to define data security standards for

the Biomedical Community

A secure data center for the School will open in

April 2003

Appointed a Director for Data Privacy and

Security

Knowledge Management

Biomedicine is knowledge-based

Ubiquitous electronic access to knowledge

The Library as our Center for Knowledge

Management - a library without walls

A new Library Director who is also Associate

Dean for Knowledge Management

Knowledge-based clinical decision support as

part of EMR deployment

Addition of new knowledge resources (e.g.

Genomic Resources)

Internet Strategy
The Web is our major point of contact with the World
Internet strategy should support our strategic plan
IRT Web design task force report
The School needs a new Web site with:

Better navigational model

More consistent branding across the School

Tighter coordination with Hospital Web sites
Separation of public and private Web services

Innovative Use of Learning

Technologies

An IT-enabled educational environment

Investment in simulation technologies

Balance innovation and current successful

practice

Easy, ubiquitous technology support

Continuous evaluation and improvement

Training educators to use IT successfully

Inquiry-based education

Life-long learning and knowledge access skills

What IRT is Doing

Immersive Learning Center

Content production

Ubiquitous access to knowledge sources

Faculty support and development

Pilot projects

Evaluation of impact

Translational Informatics
Informatics

IT

Plan

Knowledge
Management

Informatics as an academic discipline can

support translational research and be itself
an important area of translational research

Informatics

Information technology expertise alone cannot

guarantee effective use of IT in biomedicine

Informatics complements IT expertise in creating

solutions to complex real-world problems in
Biomedicine

The IRT strategic plan will create new opportunities

for Applied Informatics research and education

We need to grow our Applied Informatics

community

A Clinical Informatics Center

Clinical Informatics,in contrast to BioInformatics,

is underdeveloped at Stanford

The greatest need for Informatics is in the clinical

and translational research areas

A new academic Clinical Informatics Center will

foster Informatics at the School level and work with
Departments and institutes to help develop domain-specific
Informatics programs

The Hospitals to assist in the effective implementation of

knowledge-based clinical systems

Clinical Systems Development

The EMR is a critical component of the Biomedical

IT infrastructure

Clinical systems development must be

collaborative

Understanding workflow and context is critical

The academic user community should be a major driver

Tight integration with clinical research systems is essential
Tight coupling of knowledge resources to the point of care

Where clinical IT has been successful it has

involved a real working partnership of Hospital IT,

Clinical Informatics and the user community

Informatics and
Translational Research
Data management
Knowledge access & management
Collaborative Systems
High performance computing
Access to clinical data
Data analysis and visualization
Integrated data repository
Tissue banking systems
Image managment
Knowledge representation

Basic Research

Informatics
EMR development
Clinical data acquisition
Clinical trials management
Integration with clinical systems
Knowledge-based decision making

Clinical Research

Major IRT Goals for 2003

Hospital-School IT steering committee

Clinical Informatics Center
Secure wireless network
Planning for Clinical and Research Data Repository
The Library as our Knowledge Management Center
Data security policies for School

Immersive Learning Center

Task force to examine user support
New Website for School