The Office of Human Research Protections (OHRP) tracks and maintains documentation to perform their primary function of overseeing research that involves the use of human subjects.

Background

OHRP has been working with their own, older version of HATS developed years ago as a client/server application. In 2002 we built a separate web interface so that outside institutions could submit required documentation on line that could be imported into the client/server system for internal processing. When OHRP decided to update HATS to a web application that would integrate with this on-line submission system, they contacted us.

Our Approach

The previous project had given us familiarity with the data requirements and the underlying business processes involved with OHRP's work. The same development team was assigned to this project in order to leverage that knowledge. We spent extensive time reviewing the existing system to ensure that no functionality was lost in the process. We also interviewed representative staff members  to determine additional features and requirements that should be incorporated into a new system to make it more useful and intuitive for the day-to-day users.

The system was built in a modular fashion, with each new section layering on top of the previous build and integrating with previous modules. A new database design was developed to incorporate the on-line submission system already in place with the goal of limiting the amount of rework required on the production system. Constant interaction with the system owner to review milestones and plan future steps ensured that we never lost track of the end users' needs.

Results

The new system went on line on October 1, 2004.  It has received a great deal of positive feedback from the end users that note how much quicker and easier it is to track the documents and generate the reports they need to do their job.

http://ohrp.cit.nih.gov/efile/