NIH: Planning Grant for Integrated Advanced Information Management Systems

Sponsor: The National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Integrated advanced information systems (IAIMS) are comprehensive trans-organizational information management structures. In an IAIMS environment, organizations apply proven management practices and appropriate expertise about informatics and information services in order to link and relate the published biomedical knowledge base with clinical, research, educational and administrative, information, using computers and networks.

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) provides IAIMS grants to health-related institutions and organizations that seek assistance for projects to plan, deploy, evaluate and sustain a comprehensive information environment that supports organizational mission activities. Implementing an IAIMS information environment that crosses organizational and disciplinary boundaries is a complex task. IAIMS is not a grant program for the selection and installation of an electronic health record system or laboratory reporting system or other single-purpose information tool. IAIMS work usually involves integrating an array of commercial products (which may include electronic health record systems or electronic full-text journals) with local systems, resources and services and Internet-based information to create a single point of access.

Professionals and consumers need ready access to usable, useful, reliable information to guide their decisions and learning. For this reason, NLM's IAIMS grant program has a fundamental area of interest, context-appropriate information. Any IAIMS grant application must focus on this theme.

This program announcement describes only the IAIMS Planning grant. Applicants seeking funds for a small-scale evaluation of an integrated information management environment should consider the IAIMS Testing & Evaluation grant. Organizations may not apply for more than one type of IAIMS grant at the same time.

Research Goals

The Internet, advanced computing technologies, and digital information have altered the information landscape. With access to data, information and knowledge no longer time- and place- dependent, new opportunities are emerging to improve healthcare, education, biomedical research and health administration. To benefit from these advances, health-related organizations must (1) seamlessly integrate their own digital information resources with relevant information obtained from external sources, and (2) bring digital information to healthcare teams, researchers, teachers, students, patients and the general public in a way that supports sound decisions, efficient research, and effective action.

The long-term goal of any IAIMS process is a comprehensive and convenient information management environment, one that brings useful, usable knowledge to action settings in healthcare, education biomedical research and health administration. Particular emphasis is placed on organization-wide and trans-organizational mechanisms that enable the easy flow of information between arenas of action, such as between healthcare and biomedical research, or between organizations, such as from a hospital to a public health department. Such mechanisms are especially important during natural or man-made disasters.

Healthcare, education and research, health administration and personal health decisions take place today in an information space fed by many sources of digital and printed information, some of which are not owned by an organization or individual. The IAIMS challenge for the 21st century confronts all kinds of health-related organizations, academic and non-academic, with the challenge of using local and national networks to acquire, manage, and deliver knowledge in a way that binds it to effective action. Each organization must implement approaches that select the right subset of information from the available sources, and present it in the way most effective for a given problem and person. Examples of context- appropriate information include, but are not limited to:

an appropriate mix of clinical data and published knowledge delivered into any setting where a clinical decision is being made

tailored information resources or services that meet specific needs of a key audience, such as education modules delivered into workplace settings of health care professionals

the automated capture and mining of data from personal health records for public health surveillance or clinical research purposes

the management of large research data sets and integration with appropriate textual and image resources

Three core features are essential for meaningful context-appropriate information:

1. The use of standards. Effective integration of research data, clinical information and published knowledge requires common syntax and semantics. To achieve their IAIMS goals, organizations must use common vocabularies and adopt information standards that support the integration and exchange of health-related information. It is expected that applicants for IAIMS grants will use nationally-recognized standards such as SNOMED, HL7, LOINC, DICOM, XML, or components of the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS).

2. Appropriate stewardship over information. An IAIMS environment involves the creation and management of a digital library. As used here, the phrase “digital library” refers to a collection of information, data or knowledge, stored on a computer and accessible across a network to other local and distributed computers. Probable components in a digital library include published articles and books, electronic personal health records, multimedia curriculum materials, research databanks of biological or chemical data, and data warehouses of administrative or clinical information. Departmental and organizational boundaries can impede the flow of usable, useful information (1) between centers of activity within a single organization (such as between two health professions school), or (2) among unaffiliated organizations, (such as departments at different universities or a community consortium of hospitals), making it difficult to build and sustain a digital library. Organizations involved in IAIMS must implement approaches that facilitate the building and use of digital libraries, bringing information acquired in one arena of action, such as clinical care, to people in another arena, such as research or public health.

The phrase “information management” can be used to describe the functions of stewardship over the digital library in an IAIMS setting. Methods of stewardship must be in place to assure the availability of useful, usable, reliable information. Examples include:

tools that allow authorized people to use information retrospectively and prospectively, in real time, for their chosen purposes

easy access from the organization's knowledge store to knowledge that is external (i.e., not owned by the organization)

techniques for selecting and deploying information resources of the best quality

means for training users of information resources and services

evaluation programs that address the costs and benefits of information resources or services

3. Information management structure. Organizational structures and policies are required in an IAIMS environment to support decisions, deployment, evaluation, enhancement and replacement of appropriate information systems and services. A discussion of the participants' current approach to information management is a required component of all IAIMS applications.

It is expected that IAIMS projects will include more than one institution, and may include organizations of different types such as hospitals, clinics, community centers and local government health departments. Collaborative projects such as these give desirable economies of scale, affect greater numbers of users, and can take good advantage of network infrastructures.

It is expected that applicants for IAIMS grants will demonstrate familiarity with current practice in their area of interest, as expressed in the published literature or activities at other IAIMS organizations. To become familiar with NLM's IAIMS program and its goals, applicants are directed to the following resources:

Next-Generation IAIMS: Binding Knowledge to Effective Practice. Prepared under contract N01-LM 9-3523. Washington, D.C.: Association of American Medical Colleges, September 2001. The full technical report is available in PDF form at http://www.aamc.org/programs/betterhealth/start.htm#iaims IAIMS Consortium: Information about past and present activities of IAIMS grant recipients is available from the IAIMS Consortium at http://www.iaimscons.org/ Planning Grant Objectives

The purpose of an IAIMS Planning grant is to produce a comprehensive, written plan for an organizational approach to context-appropriate information. The IAIMS plan is a written document, created as a result of an organizational planning process that involves all significant stakeholders in addressing the required features of the desired information environment. An IAIMS plan, when completed, is a discrete formal document that has the following characteristics:

A statement of the long term vision for the information environment of the organizations involved

A description of the functions and features of the desired information environment

A listing of goals, objectives and steps that will lead from the current state to the desired information environment

An estimate of the resources required for implementation, including expertise, information systems and resources, management support, etc.

A timetable and milestones for implementation

An approach for implementing and sustaining the new information environment

Evidence of consensus among the stakeholders who developed the plan

Evidence of support by appropriate key leaders for implementing the plan

An IAIMS Planning grant application should include a clear description of how the planning will take place, how it will lead to an IAIMS plan, and how approval will be obtained from leaders in the organizations that are involved. An IAIMS planning process should involve an appropriate set of stakeholders in a comprehensive analysis of the stated information problem. Planning should include a review of existing information resources and systems, pertinent information management policies, costs and benefits, and other organizational issues. The nature of the planning process - committees, approval structures, data gathering techniques, etc. - is determined by the applicant organization. An organization may adopt a well-known planning model, or design one of its own.

An application for an IAIMS planning grant should cover the following points:

How IAIMS planning will help the participants achieve their long-range goals

The activities or programs of the participants that will benefit from context-appropriate information

The stakeholders and how they will be involved in the planning

Current information management practices at participating organizations

Involvement of information specialists, including librarians and informaticians

How the proposed planning process will lead to an IAIMS plan

The approach for obtaining stakeholder consensus and key leadership support for the IAIMS plan

Amount:

NLM intends to commit approximately $750,000 each year to fund 2–4 applications

Individual awards may not exceed $150,000 per year in direct costs. Planning grants may be for one or two years. This program does not cover costs for facilities and administration, also called overhead or indirect costs.

Consortium/subcontractual costs will be considered direct costs to the parent grant and, therefore, must fall within the total direct cost cap established for this program. Like the parent grant, consortium costs cannot include funds for facilities and administration.

The average size of past IAIMS planning grants is $300,000 for a two-year grant

Usually, awards are made three times per year, in December/January, March/April and August/September. Start dates are usually the same as the award date. The period of performance is one or two years.

Deadline:

Release/Posted Date: February 28, 2007
Opening Date: April 25, 2007 (Earliest date an application may be submitted to Grants.gov)
Application Receipt Dates: January 25, May 25, and September 25
Expiration/Closing Date: May 2, 2010

For further information, please visit: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-07-238.html