Each patient is a research biorepository: informatics-enabled research on surplus clinical specimens via the living BioBank

Alexander V Alekseyenko; Bashir Hamidi; Trevor D Faith; Keith A Crandall; Jennifer G Powers; Christopher L Metts; James E Madory; Steven L Carroll; Jihad S Obeid; Leslie A Lenert

doi:10.1093/jamia/ocaa236

Each patient is a research biorepository: informatics-enabled research on surplus clinical specimens via the living BioBank

J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2021 Jan 15;28(1):138-143. doi: 10.1093/jamia/ocaa236.

Authors

Alexander V Alekseyenko^{1

2

3

4}, Bashir Hamidi¹, Trevor D Faith¹, Keith A Crandall⁵, Jennifer G Powers⁶, Christopher L Metts^{1

7

8}, James E Madory^{7

8}, Steven L Carroll⁸, Jihad S Obeid^{1

2}, Leslie A Lenert^{1

2

9}

Affiliations

¹ Biomedical Informatics Center, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina, USA.
² Department of Public Health Sciences, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina, USA.
³ Department of Oral Health Sciences, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina, USA.
⁴ Department of Healthcare Leadership and Management, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina, USA.
⁵ Department of Biostatistics & Bioinformatics, Computational Biology Institute, Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University, Washington DC, USA.
⁶ Department of Dermatology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, USA.
⁷ Division of Pathology Informatics, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina, USA.
⁸ Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina, USA.
⁹ Department of Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina, USA.

Abstract

The ability to analyze human specimens is the pillar of modern-day translational research. To enhance the research availability of relevant clinical specimens, we developed the Living BioBank (LBB) solution, which allows for just-in-time capture and delivery of phenotyped surplus laboratory medicine specimens. The LBB is a system-of-systems integrating research feasibility databases in i2b2, a real-time clinical data warehouse, and an informatics system for institutional research services management (SPARC). LBB delivers deidentified clinical data and laboratory specimens. We further present an extension to our solution, the Living µBiome Bank, that allows the user to request and receive phenotyped specimen microbiome data. We discuss the details of the implementation of the LBB system and the necessary regulatory oversight for this solution. The conducted institutional focus group of translational investigators indicates an overall positive sentiment towards potential scientific results generated with the use of LBB. Reference implementation of LBB is available at https://LivingBioBank.musc.edu.

Keywords: just-in-time biobanking; phenotyped specimen data; phenotyped specimens; translational research services.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

Biological Specimen Banks / organization & administration*
Data Warehousing
Databases, Factual*
Humans
Microbiota / genetics
Phenotype*
Surveys and Questionnaires
Translational Research, Biomedical*

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding