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Overview

In 2006, the Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) was established at UCSF to aid researches in their work. From this, the Academic Research Systems group was formed as part of the Office of Academic and Administrative Information Systems (OAAIS) to provide the information technology and services support for CTSI and related UCSF research efforts.

The long term project that the ARS group is challenged with is the development of an Integrated Data Repository (IDR) of clinical and life sciences data.

In April, 2007, security events at UCSF identified a more short term project for ARS, providing a secure data hosting environment for sensitive data. That project was initially named the Secure Data Environment (SDE) and has recently been re-branded as MyResearch.

The purpose of MyResearch is to provide UCSF research teams with a professionally managed, secure, web based, collaborative environment in which to store files containing sensitive date. Also, MyResearch provides application and data base services that allow investigators to view, manipulate, and save their data entirely in a protected environment without requiring files to be stored on their own computers. In the future, MyResearch will become the security infrastructure for the Integrated Data Repository (IDR).

The MyResearch platform is built on Microsoft SharePoint 2007, a web based document management system that works with popular browsers such as IE, Firefox and Safari. Each PI has control of his or her site and can add and control access for all team members.

MyResearch servers are stored on a private network with its own firewall and intrusion detection system in a secure, professional data center that is locked and guarded 24X7. Hourly and daily backups are performed as well as regular data archiving and complete replication to an alternate data center. Automated Operating System and other software updates eliminates the need to researchers to perform these tasks.

Researchers using MyResearch are provided with Microsoft Office applications as well as analytic tools such as SAS and Stata. The service is provided free of charge this fiscal year. Starting in July, 2009, a $400 annual charge per principal investigator will be initiated.

To obtain a MyResearch site, a principal investigator should contact Customer Support Services at 514-4100, option 2.