NIH Research Site Needs a Workflow System

01 August 2011
Workflow Research Dashboards Product-Design Ruby-on-Rails
Screenshot of Project: NIH Research Site Needs a Workflow System

Problem

As the Hawaii site for the NIH cancer studies PLCO and NLST PHREI was responsible for tracking the progress of over 10,0000 participants by mail by means of an annual survey. The study had been going on for 18 years so by this point so study participants were scattered all over the US and the Pacific. So finding contact information was a challenge.

The research team had developed effective methods for doing this very detailed and arduous work, but to keep track of the status of a given participant more was needed. This was essential to ensure high quality data for the study and to ensure a high quality of care for the participants.

Solution

Motiv was designed to implement the study coordinator’s “leveling system” that was used by research staff to track the progress of participants. It allowed her to design and modify the “leveling system” as needed. Research staff would move the participants through the different “levels” as the different standards of care were met.

Tags identified the participant as belonging to different workflows that were managed across teams. The research staff used barcode scanners to scan in surveys as they were recieved.

Each staff member was presented with a dashboard that gave them an overview of the work as well as their current work assignment as determined by a shuffling algorithm or specifically made by the study coordiator. Status updates were provided instantaneously.

The study coordinator was presented with a dashboard and reports that enabled her to know the status of any participant at any given time, as well as present the principal investigator and national investigators with detailed reports.