Patrick J Tighe M.D., M.S.
“The IDR team has helped us develop a data model for perioperative variables. They’ve also offered an excellent consulting service, helping us identify the best approaches and sources needed to answer our research questions on perioperative pain and cognition. Perhaps best of all, they’ve also been a great partner in continuously developing new ideas for research programs and methods, helping link together researchers from across UF.
The IDR team members are true experts in applied biomedical informatics. They are responsive and service-oriented, and they take professional pride in the quality and accuracy of their work. They have helped anticipate and preempt issues in data collection, preprocessing and analysis, improving the overall quality of research products. I also appreciate that they are organically inquisitive and genuinely interested in the research problems themselves, fostering a team-based mentality in moving projects forward.
It’s best to get the IDR team involved as early as possible in the process, and to be open to feedback and redirection in how to most effectively proceed on the project at hand.”
Patrick Tighe, M.D., M.S. Associate Professor
Robert Lucero PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN
“I have worked with the IDR team for the past five years. The team has been collaborative and instrumental creating an efficient process of data acquisition.
The IDR staff have gone out of their way to meet as often as needed to ensure that our data requests are provided to us with a reasonable turnaround time.
Working with the IDR team takes the mystery and guessing out of the processes of getting data that can lead to scientific discovery, as well as identifying clinically meaningful patterns.”
Robert J. Lucero, Ph.D., M.P.H., R.N., FAAN Associate Professor
Jiang Bian Ph.D.
“The IDR team has provided critical data extraction and management support for a number of extramurally funded grants.* They have not only provided data services, but they also contributed their data expertise into the research process, helping the study team reshape the research questions.”
*Examples: R01CA246418, PCORI ME-2018C3-14754, R21 AG061431, CDC U18DP006512 and R21 CA245858.
Jiang Bian, Ph.D. Director Of Cancer Informatics And EHealth Core & Associate Professor
David Fedele Ph.D., ABPP
“The IDR Research Services team has supported us in two key ways. First, the i2b2 system allows us to identify the number of patients in the UF Health system that may be eligible for a project. This information is invaluable when writing grant applications or trying to ascertain the viability of a research idea. I always reference i2b2 when writing a grant proposal to ensure that I will have the sample size I need to propose an appropriately powered study. Second, they have provided IRB approved patient contact registries for a number of studies in my lab. This mechanism broadens our ability to recruit a larger sample of UF Health patients into our studies.
“Dr. Harle and the IDR team have been a pleasure to collaborate with. They are responsive to questions about the IDR system and helpful in working with researchers to run i2b2 queries and provide data in an expedited fashion.”
David A Fedele, Ph.D. Associate Professor & Child/Pediatric Area Head
Wei Xue
“I joined UF last year and was not aware of the i2b2 until September, when Dr. Katz proposed using aggregated data to study the associations. It enabled us to use aggregated data for more complicated analysis and not just a summary of statistics. It’s a great resource. A lot of times, researchers have theories and want to test and verify them. Without the right data, we can’t do it. For me in my role, this research topic question [linking Vitamin D deficiency to increased risk of Covid-19] is very important and compelling during the pandemic. Binary outcome logistical regression means we can use aggregate-level data for other models, without the need for individual-level data. It allows us to address more complex questions. I am happy we have the database and the statistical method to answer our questions. I truly think it’s a great resource with many uses.”
Wei Xue Research Assistant Professor
Joseph Katz D.M.D.
“There’s an overlap between medicine and dentistry, an interaction between medical issues and oral health issues. I have studied how the medical condition of a patient with diabetes, for example, affects their oral health status, and vice versa. And in many patients, how an oral problem may not improve until their diabetes is controlled. We know that oral conditions, such as periodontal and gum disease, can have negative outcomes for a patient’s cardiovascular disease, pre-term delivery and stroke. We conduct research to learn how therapy and treatment of one condition affects the patient’s health in other areas. It’s fascinating to try and understand all these correlations and multiple associations.
“For an oral medicine researcher to have access to patient medical data from across the UF Health system, it gives me many opportunities to delve into these links. The i2b2 provides a wonderful tool with which to assess risks, using biostatistical analysis. Then, with your statistician, you work with these factors to determine links and risks. “The IDR Research Services team has done a wonderful job purifying the data and ensuring quality and accuracy. Researchers by nature tend to be skeptical and analytical. This tool is kept current and accurate, and it’s a fantastic research resource offering a wealth of information.
Joseph Katz, D.M.D Professor