Enabling a Collaborative Approach for Biomedical Research and Homeland Security

1. Enabling a Collaborative Approach for Biomedical Research and Homeland Security Harold Garner, University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Center Jim Miller, inSORS Integrated Communications, Inc. The US NIH's groundbreaking Biodefense Network, launched in 2004, now comprises a national community of 800 physicians and researchers, 15 biocontainment labs, 10 regional centers of excellence, and scores of leading hospitals and medical schools. The Biodefense Network, managed by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), leverages the high speed connections provided by Internet2, and collaboration tools such as the Access Grid, to carry out its collaborative and computing-intense research. This session will detail how Internet2 and its collaboration tools can serve biomedical research as well as critical homeland security applications.

2. Video conferencing is one component of the resources implemented to enhance communications and therefore efficiency of the overall effort to develop new vaccines and therapeutics for all biodefense agents, from the flu to the plague. These collaboration resources are contained in a Trans-RCE communications core operated by UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, under the direction of Skip Garner

3. Three collaboration components • inSORs – based desktop/room video communications. • A private web-based portal. • A public web site.

4. The web is a resource for RCE scientists and the public • www.rcebiodefense.org • Hosted on our dedicated servers. • Links to all RCE webs, or we will work to put the content you want exposed to the public. • Primary function is a tool to facilitate collaborations with non-RCE scientists and as a window to the world (lay public, news media, politicians, etc.). • A searchable database of all abstracts for RCE projects available to the public. • Hosting of regional web sites, GLRCE and WRCE, with RMRCE a possibility in the near future

5. RCE portal is a private distance collaboration tool • A portal is a secure, dynamic, web-accessible set of resources customized to the individual user. • A portal looks very much like a web page, but has a lot of capabilities that can be selected and organized for each user. • Our portal is implemented using a Vignette engine on a set of dedicated servers. • Our portal is a one-stop shop….with access to the web page, video conferencing, document exchange/archiving/backup, announcements, expert finder, resource finder and much more…..

6. Video conferencing and collaboration • Implemented using a commercial product for the desktop – inSORs, selected after extensive comparisons with competition. • Video server at UTSW • Approximately 250 set-ups (camera, echo canceling microphone, software) installed and in routine use. Additional units being purchased as requested (and as budget permits). • Continued support of technology and server as well as interface with inSORS. • We have a pro-active program to look at commonalities among researchers and projects and set up video conferences with all parties concerned to further help researchers identify valuable collaborations and resources.

7. Issues in establishing the video network • Biodefense scientists use a mix of computers, including PCs and Macs. As part of the contract with inSORs, a Mac client had to be developed. This is now routine. • Call in phone capability was required because there was always someone on the road that needed to be in scheduled conferences. • Numerous user firewall issues had to be resolved. This required working with each campus/government office/institutions IT group. • Upgrades to software and hardware are continuously being done, as superior systems become available. Keeping everybody upgraded requires time. We have converged on a stable system now. • The users are MDs and PhDs who are experts in biology and medicine, but have little time and patience for “technology”. We had to devise simplified instructions that were essentially plug-and-play to get acceptance. The system had to become about as easy to use as the phone. • The very simple meeting scheduling system, with email notification and links makes it very easy to organize and conduct a conference. • The inSORs server has been exceedingly stable and available.

8. What desktop video communications has done for the RCE • Enabled the leaders of each of the 10 regions and the NIH administrators to migrate from conference calls. • The system has paid for itself in travel savings already. • We were able to videocast 3 parallel scientific presentation sessions spanning 2 days to the many researchers not able to attend the annual meeting. We expect this to increase as travel costs escalate. • Distant research collaborations conduct planning and exchange status and data all the time.

9. RCE Monthly Status Report – July 2006 example • Usage statistics for the inSORS Video Conference System is as follows: • IGMeeting client • 1359 total logins • 91 unique users • Video Conferences • 178 users joined a video conference • 27 unique users joined a video conference • 107 video conferences held • Usage statistics for rcebiodefense.org • 8503 pages viewed • current average data transferred per day 41.05 megabytes • Usage statistics for Private Portal • Total number of portals created prior to July: 61 • Total number of portals created in July from responses: 35 • Total number of invitations sent prior to July: 542 • Invitations sent to all Administrators to be sent to all RCE members • File Storage (FTP) usage: • 36 G • Updates to Portal • Gathering PDFs of all articles to place in portal for private access only. (ongoing) • Other • Quarterly National Communication Newsletter sent to 100 more.

10. Thank You