BRISSKit is a demo web application that intends to simplify the process whereby medical and translational researchers find and study patient cohorts and link to other biomedical datasets.

2. BRISSKit: Biomedical research
software as a service
Dr Jonathan Tedds (PI BRISSKit, Senior Research Fellow, Health and Research
Data Informatics, University of Leicester)
Saj Issa (BRISSKitTechnical Lead)
Andrew Burnham (UoL / BRISSKit Information Governance Lead /
NHS-HE Forum IGWorking Group)
Daniela Duca (Senior Co-Design Manager, Jisc)
Catherine Grout (Head of Change, e-Research, Jisc)

3. brisskit.le.ac.uk
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Example BRISSkit implementation

4. BRISSKit CiviCRM: patient cohort management
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5. » Manages studies: enables end-to-end contact management for
volunteers and research participants
» Track approaches, contact, responses, recruitment, exclusions
» Object model that reflects community building and non-profit
relationships
BRISSKit CiviCRM: patient cohort management
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6. Example BRISSkit implementation
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brisskit.le.ac.uk

7. BRISSKit OpenSpecimen: sample management
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8. » Holds data on primary, derived and aliquot specimen, including
linear and 2d barcodes
» Storage inventory, order tracking e.g. 30,000+ NIHR UHL
Cardiovascular Biomedical Research Unit samples stored and
recorded
BRISSKit OpenSpecimen: sample management
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9. brisskit.le.ac.uk
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Example BRISSkit implementation

10. BRISSKit RedCap: survey management
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11. » Web-based, secure questionnaire data entry by research or
nursing staff
› E.g. used for all patient recruits in NIHR UHL Respiratory Biomedical
Research Unit – mobile computing on wards and outpatient clinic
BRISSKit RedCap: survey management
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12. brisskit.le.ac.uk
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Example BRISSkit implementation

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Data from multiple data
sources combined into
multiple ontologies for
flexible and sophisticated
searching, cohort
discovery and research
BRISSKit i2b2: data warehousing & querying

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Survey data
Records participant consent,
questionnaire data and
primary specimen IDs
I2b2 data query
Cohort selection and data
querying
Research: the semantic bridge
?

15. Research: the semantic bridge
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Bio-ontology!

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» Information GovernanceToolkit - analysis of Department of
Health (DoH/NHS) IGT requirements vs. BRISSKit
organisation/project and services/tools
› a) Hosted Secondary UseTeam/project (Hosted IGT)
› b) AcuteTrust (AcuteTrust IGT)
» IGTrainingTool (NHS – University is registered)
» Pseudonymisation requirements
BRISSKit Information governance and security management work
stream - Dr Andrew Burnham leading

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» Data Management Plan
» IT Security and standards – Penetration testing and Security testing
» Other NHS Standards/Requirements:
- Care Records Guarantee
- NHS Constitution
- NHS Records Management
- Patient Safety DSCN 14/2009, 18/2009
BRISSKit Information governance and security management work
stream - Dr Andrew Burnham leading

18. » Integrated support for core research processes
» Well-established mature open source applications as protoyped in
e.g. Cardiovascular, Respiratory, Cancer: fully UK customised
» A cloud based platform for seamless management and integration
between applications
» A BRISSKit API allows integration with existing clinical systems
BRISSKit USPs
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19. » Easy set up, use and administration through browser (including on
mobile devices)
» Capability of being hosted in any compliant cloud provider
including UHL (NHS information governance)
» Direct secure links through Jisc via Janet network under
consideration (Shared Data Centre)
BRISSKit USPs
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» ALSPAC Birth Cohort Studies
» DataShield: simultaneous remote, secure access to multiple large
international cohorts
» SAIL-Farr secure NHS data hosting (Swansea)
University of Bristol
BRISSKit highlighted collaborations

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» Case Study Module Development
» UoL Health Sciences Longitudinal Studies
» NIHR BRUs: Cardiovascular, Respiratory, Lifestyle (Loughborough-
Leicester)
» Leicester Diabetes Centre
» UoL Data to Knowledge for Practice strategic theme
› UoL Genomics, UHL NHSTrust – IBM IT Partnership
University Hospitals Leicester NHS Trust
BRISSKit highlighted collaborations

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» BRISSKit Community event
and Health research hack:
Public cloud i2b2, 23-24 Feb
2015, College Court, Leicester
» Co-located european i2b2
community user group
meeting + BRISSKit hack
event, Leicester 5-7 October
2015!

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» Launched Sept 2014 –
supporting 6 of UK’s most
successful scientific and
academic organisations
» First shared data centre for
medical and academic research
in the UK
» First large scale example of HPC
environments being placed in an
outsourced co-location facility
Jisc shared data centre

24. In this phase of funding Jisc is
working with University of
Leicester to determine:
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» How BRISSkit might operate
as a Jisc Service (there may be
other options)
» What the “market” for the
service is
» How it might be sustained
BRISSkit and Jisc

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» Market research
› First survey this year: bit.ly/1z5vVgq
» Cost modelling and test out fit with existing infrastructure
and services
Our current focus:
BRISSkit and Jisc

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» Exciting and innovative (based on a successful project(s))
» Has real potential to improve quality and efficiency of research
» Could fit well with Jisc’s offer of software as a service
» Could fit well with existing and emerging Infrastructure and projects
» Shared Data centre arrangements, framework agreements, work
to support access to sensitive data
» And fit with ongoing operations to reach customers (service
delivery - help desk, market research, customer engagement etc.)
Opportunities
BRISSkit and Jisc

27. » Users can now get free servers from public clouds, e.g. Amazon,
Azure for Research etc
» In March 2015 BRISSKit users will be able to:
› deploy their own i2b2 virtual app onto their own cloud server
› upload their data through .csv files – default nominal ontology created
› modify/align this ontology to standardised BioPortal codesets
– e.g. SNOMED
› perform queries on their data using the revised ontology through i2b2
March 2015: i2b2 via public cloud (anon data)
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28. » With datasets uploaded into a range of i2b2 instances
» Users will be able to publish their i2b2 datasets
» A community of public cloud i2b2 users will emerge, within which
users can publish, exchange and augment data and ontologies
» These merged datasets can then be used to service NHS-wide
cohort search, selection and quality management
» Re-identification of cohorts will remain with original sources of
i2b2 data
Towards an i2b2 NHS community
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29. Sign up to jiscmail.ac.uk/brisskit-announce
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Example BRISSkit implementation