When I visit a conference, exhibition or presentation, I tend to hear the sentence “We really need to implement a data management strategy”, which is then usually followed by “Our data will grow exponentially in the next few years, we need to be prepared”. After that, once you start talking in more detail, you will hear that data security, the (most sensible) choice of hosting and scalability are big questions for many life science and healthcare organizations and it is not always fully clear to them how to solve these questions.
At MediSapiens our data workflow starts with the curation, storage and management of diverse types of data, be this patient, phenotype, genomic or omic data in general. This diverse data set is used by a variety of partners, such as internationally operating pharmaceutical companies, regional research groups and national biobanks. Once this data is in place and safely stored, we often provide these partners with various analytical and visualization tools, so that their data is fully leveraged, generating new insights and discoveries.
With all our partners, the key elements in their data management requirements are: 1) can the solution handle all the data they have gathered up until now but also all data they will generate and acquire in the future, 2) can they easily access that data at any given time, 3) how is data access and privacy guaranteed so that only people with appropriate privileges access the data they are allowed to and 4) does it comply with both (inter)national and company standards and regulations?
Can it handle all my data?
Within the Explorer Platform, MediSapiens has created its Genius, Phenius and Omicus data management modules to specifically cater for the needs of our clients: each module is targeted for different data types, be this genomic data (Genius), clinical/phenotypic data (Phenius) and/or multi-omics data (Omicus). This division was made not only to ensure that your data formats are well accommodated, but also that you receive the best performance with your datasets. Yet even though we store the data in specific modules, the solution forms one entity, where one interface allows you to deal with all your data in a simple and easy way.
As with all modules of the Explorer Platform, Genius, Phenius and Omicus can be hosted on any server of choice, ensuring compliance with corporate and national regulations. Your freedom of hosting provides you with full control over your growth requirements for data storage, so that you can expand your data storage needs with an extra physical server or rent more (cloud) storage as required with your preferred set-up. The Explorer Platform thus provides you with a solution you need right now as well as for all your future requirements.
Can I easily access my data?
Our data management modules come with all the tools you need to ensure that your datasets can be easily found, using e.g. a combination of metadata, variant, expression or other measurement data you have stored in the system, and a powerful ontology-enabled search engine. Add to that an audit trail and you have a lot of tools at hand to ensure ease of use and ease of finding the specific data you need at any given moment. This will help you gather the correct data for analysis, research and/or other use rapidly. And with an API each module can be linked to other applications in your workflow.
At MediSapiens we will always carefully listen to your requirements and needs before we start implementing a solution that fits your needs best, both right now and in the future.
Data privacy and access?
Different country locations and varying data privacy regulations call for an appropriate access management solution. Over the years we have worked with clients that are operating in countries with some of the strictest data privacy and data storage regulations. Examples include countries such as Germany, US and China. Our data management modules come with powerful yet easy-to-use access control management that lets you define in very specific detail who is allowed to see which information within a dataset, thus ensuring a very high level of privacy and compliance to (inter)national regulations. And yes, our solutions are compatible with GDPR, just to mention one much-discussed regulation.
Does it comply with (inter)national standards and regulations?
As you have seen above, we have implemented solutions for clients operating both on a national, regional and international scope and with varying requirements for hosting (traditional data centers or cloud servers? Private or public cloud?) and also different corporate policies.
Before we start working with you, we will always carefully go through your own requirements, take into account national and international requirements and provide you with a solid data management solution that ensures that you are fully compliant with regulations. In addition, we are actively participating in organizations such as the Pistoia Alliance and ISO to continuously follow up developments in standards, requirements and regulations.
Data management in the age of continuously growing (big) data may look like a challenging task, as there are a lot of elements to consider. However, with a careful go-through of your current and future requirements and the power of our data management modules, that challenge becomes a mission possible that fits your needs technically, financially and regulatory-wise. If you want to know more contact us. Our experts will be pleased to listen in more detail to your requirements, provide suggestions and together set up a robust solution that fits your specific needs.
Writer: Hans Garritzen, Sales Director
