Procurement and protocol tracking and management system
Business Need
The NINDS is the owner of mission-critical systems like the Purchasing On-line Tracking System (POTS) and Protocol Tracking and Management System (PTMS). POTS is an electronic purchase request submission, approval, and tracking system that is currently being used by 26 Institutes and Centers (ICs) at NIH.
PTMS is a secured web-based information management system designed to make the clinical protocol submission, review, and approval processes more efficient, well-organized, and accurate throughout the life cycle of a clinical research protocol. PTMS is a multi-tier web-based application that utilizes open-source J2EE technology with an Oracle database.
NINDS is responsible for application and infrastructure management, including, but not limited to, system development, operations support, system maintenance, and system enhancement for POTS and PTMS.
How Neevsys Helped
NeevSys was engaged by NINDS to design, customize, develop and support the POTS and PTMS application, database applications, websites and other solutions. NeevSys worked with NINDS to do the required systems analysis, design, development, test, implementation, training and maintenance to cover all aspects of life-cycle software database development as well as designing and maintaining the institutional public and private web sites. We followed the best practice of system development life cycle (SDLC) to develop SOA based dynamic web and database applications using, but not limited to, ASP/.NET and/or J2EE with various database back-ends (Access, MS SQL or Oracle) meeting the business and investigators requirements. We also used web-based tools such as Adobe Flash, scripting and formatting languages such as XHTML, CSS, XML and JavaScript, utilizing established Best Practices for usability and Section 508 compliance to support scientific and administration functions of NINDS.
Results Delivered
POTS streamlines the procurement process and allows purchasing staff to send requisitions directly into NBS without requiring double entry, thereby enhancing productivity and efficiency. Over 20,000 orders are sent each month, saving at least $1.2 million a year in labor costs. This greater efficiency has also allowed many ICs to process more orders with less staff and to funnel their savings into research rather than administration to better support the NIH.
PTMS is currently used by NIH Combined Neuroscience IRBs (white and blue panels) which include NINDS, NIMH, NEI, NIAAA, and NIDCD. In addition, the system was recently deployed to NHGRI and will soon be utilized by NIDA, NIDDK/NIAMS, NIEHS, and NIDCR. This application enables the Principal Investigators (PI) to initiate protocol reviews, monitor review processes, view status changes, and quickly respond to requests for additional information by the protocol reviewers. In addition, it allows the protocol coordinators (PCs) to manage the entire Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval process. Currently, the system supports around 5000 users and around 30 institutes.
NeevSys is using its proprietary custom development methodology, to design, build and test Java and .NET-based applications. The methodology has been well received by NINDS. Our methodology extends the NIH’s EPLC methodology and is fully integrated with the phases of EPLC.
NeevSys successfully got awarded the option year in July 2013.