maturity-model

Research Informatics Maturity Model Tool

Problem statement

CTSAs are the core sources of clinical and translational research, but often struggle with helping their organizations understand the strategic importance of improving their informatics capabilities and IT deployment. All institutions are trying to understand what they should invest in to remain innovative and competitive, not only in research but in translating knowledge into practice and exploring the data they have to improve health.

Significant interest in the Maturity Model has already been elicited without a wide call. We want to democratize this kind of survey so that stakeholders at all levels can self-assess and work to improve their current functions and plan for innovation.

Project description

Organizations that engage in research, especially those with Clinical and Translational Science groups, may want to self-assess their maturity of key research IT capabilities and learn to improve these capabilities. This project intends to develop an approach to help organizations through that process. It builds on other assessments by Embi, Knosp, Barnett, and Anderson by narrowing the focus to key areas related to collaborative and open science, and provides more clarity and context for the possibilities for improvement. It also intends to facilitate the process of improvement through guided vignettes and tools.

The purpose of this survey is to elicit key indicators related to research and translational IT that may drive the ability for institutions to engage in innovative and collaborative open science. Our definition of research and translational IT are the capabilities that enable data, information, and knowledge to be discovered, processed, and shared. It focuses on three key areas:

• Governance and Leadership
• Data sharing and licensing
• Deployment of capabilities related to data (architecture, content, tools, and sharing)

The survey has three steps:

1. Data collection for “artifacts” related to our focus areas and open science/collaboration more broadly. This includes documenting the evidence of tools, policies, governance structures, leadership positions, and resources at a site.

2. Open-ended questions related to governance and leadership, and policies influencing data sharing and licensing.

3. A guided identification of ‘bright spots’ related to the deployment of key infrastructure capabilities.

Running

The easiest way to run Maturity Model is to execute it as a Docker container. This requires the following steps:

1. Configure the application to use your instance of REDCap. Modify config.json to include your REDCap API token and your REDCap API URL. Configure any other settings.
2. Run docker compose up -d
3. Access the Maturity Model software from http://localhost:8888

Development

For instructions on setting up the maturity-model application for development please see app.md