Study Support

One of the objectives for WAGER is to provide a set of tools to the Western Australian medical research community that simplify and reduce the workload associated with study conduct while improving the quality and accessibility of the data collected. By leveraging the core WAGER computing infrastructure we are also able to provide secure, robust long-term data storage and to provide secure access to the data from a web browser.

WAGER currently provides the following software tools to support ongoing studies:

• Biogenix Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) allows laboratory personnel to capture and track patient, biospecimen and inventory data.
• Study Manager allows researchers to update study data stored within the WAGER database. Users can search through the subjects involved with the study, and update information for each individual such as demographic data, consent details, phenotypic and genotypic data.

WAGER has close affiliations with the WA DNA Bank and PathWest, which provide specimen collection, analysis and storage capabilities for ongoing and completed studies.

• The WA DNA Bank, funded by the Federal Government through the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia, provides scientists with a state-of-the-art facility to store DNA samples needed to undertake critical medical research into common diseases such as breast cancer, colorectal cancer, and heart disease.
• PathWest provides diagnostic services across the full range of pathology disciplines. PathWest maintains a network of over 50 branch laboratories and collection centres within Western Australia, from as far north as Kununnurra through to Esperance in the south, reliant on a comprehensive courier system.

LIMS

As part of the WAGER initiative, the Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) for all of the research groups curating biospecimen banks in WA are upgraded to a standardised and secured biospecimen sample tracking and data management system. The custodianship of these data will remain with the original data custodians.

The Biogenix solution proves to be superior to other products available in the market due to its rich and relevant biomedical functionalities and highly extensible framework that can be specially tailored to meet the current data management challenges of the biospecimen banks. It integrates clinical and laboratory research information into a central repository, making it easier to add, search, retrieve and track data at any time. It provides biospecimen management with user customisable inventory layout and management. It tracks biospecimen and sub-specimen to patients, sample banks, studies and storage locations.

Some of the highlights from migration efforts to upgrade from the commonly used Microsoft Excel and/or Access for managing and tracking samples to the Biogenix/Oracle solution are listed below:

• Better quality of data captured with the strict data validation checks
• Ease of incorporation of barcode label generation and printing capabilities
• Simple but effective user-definable search/query function to create and execute repeated queries and to download results in text files for further analysis

Study Manager

Study Manager allows researchers to update study data stored within the WAGER database. Users can search through the subjects involved with the study, and update information for each individual such as demographic data, consent details, phenotypic and genotypic data:

• View or edit existing data recorded for subjects in the study
• View or edit existing fields in the data dictionary (but not add fields; study data fields can be added by the IT team on request)
• Upload data (from an external file to a new or existing dataset)
• Users can view various reports on the state of the Study LIMS, including statistics on biospecimen consent and samples collected to date