Larry Gersz

Larry Gersz in Kingston, Jamaica

A PILOT PROJECT IN DIABETES HEALTH RESEARCH INFORMATICS:

A Collaboration Between the University at Buffalo Center for Integrated Global Biomedical Sciences & the University of West Indies Mona Clinical Research Center Network

JUNE 2019

Project Topic: Diabetes Health Informatics Platform in Jamaica

Goal: The goal of this MBA project is to develop a rationale business plan for a Diabetes Health Research Informatics platform at the University of West Indies (UWI) Mona Clinical Research Center Network.

MBA Candidate: Lawrence Gersz (lgersz@buffalo.edu); completed 3 years of UB Medical School and one year of MBA by the end of May 2019.

Experiential Training Period: May-June 2019 at UWI Mona Campus

Faculty Advisors / Technical Advisors:

  • UB Faculty Supervisor: Prof. Dorothy Siaw-Asamoah
  • UB Content Faculty Advisor: Prof. Gina Prescott
  • UWI Faculty Supervisor: Prof. David McBean, Prof Maurice
  • UWI Clinical Research Center Network Advisor: Marvin Reid
  • UWU Content Faculty Advisor: Prof. Michael Boyne, Dr. Karen Phillips

Left to right: Larry Gersz and Dr. John Lindo

Clinical Research Sites

  1. UWI Mona Clinical Research Center Network
  2. Tropical Metabolism Research Unit
  3. Diabetes Relief Treatment and Research Center
  4. Community Center for Mona Campus Self-care Network for Diabetes
  5. Kingston Diabetes Care Port Site (TBD)
  6. UWI Medical Center Clinical Laboratory
  7. Mission health care and community engagement network (Mission Jamaica)

Technology Collaborators

  1. Wayne Palmer, Deputy Dean, UWI Faculty of Medical Sciences, UWI Mona Campus Faculty of Medical Science
  2. Ative S. Ennis, Director of Innovation and Enterprise Solutions, Digicel (Jamaica) Ltd.
  3. Patrick Sheehan, CEO, Peter Sheehan Diabetes Care Foundation
  4. Sue Siminski, CEO, Frontier Science
  5. Robin DiFrancesco, Scientific Manager, UB Center for Integrated Global Biomedical Sciences
  6. Dr. Gene Morse, Director, UB Center for Integrated Global Sciences
  7. Dr. John Lindo, Deputy Dean for Research, University of the West Indies, Mona Campu

Project Objectives:

Design a business plan that integrates the technical design for a Diabetes Health Research Informatics Database with the academic and business partners in the project.

  • Conduct interviews with the key stakeholders and identify barriers andcsolutions to challenges that may slow down project implementation.
  • Develop a powerpoint presentation that can be used for pre-projectcbrainstorming and implementation strategies.

Establish academic-business-government model that includes the intellectual and financial contributions of multiple stakeholders to achieve:

  • A business plan for pre-project approval that will guide implementation
  • Intellectual property agreements leading to a Contract among participants
  • Data warehouse and ownership agreements
  • Licensing considerations for future use within the UWI Clinical Research Center Network

Design a sustainability plan for the project as the number of stakeholders increases and expands beyond the UWI Mona Campus pilot.

Project Plan:

The project team will develop a plan for a digital infrastructure for data collection, transmission, storage, monitoring, analytics and reporting relate to clinical research projects conducted within the Clinical Research Center Network.

The project will seek to develop a data collection, management and analysis architecture that:

  • Facilitates data entry from/to:
  • Cell phone users
  • Digicel Innovation and Enterprise Solutions coordination office
  • e-Case Report Forms
  • UWI Medical Center Laboratory informatics platform
  • UWI Clinical Research Laboratory Network with instrumentation located in TMRU, Caritox, Natural Products Institute, Tech R&D Institute and Faculty Instrumentation Core Laboratory in FMS building
  • Research pharmacy
  • Individual investigators
  • UWI Mona Research Administration central office