Research Software Development

What is Research Software Development?

When research needs cannot be satisfied by off-the-shelf packaged software, College of Medicine Research Information Technology develops end-to-end custom software solutions that help in analysis, operational support, and intelligent apps to assist in clinical decision-making. We offer a broad spectrum of software applications, for mobile and for the web, built with consideration of security, robustness, sustainability, and scalability. Our team works closely with cross-functional teams in The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center IT to offer a comprehensive suite of software development services.

READY

Patient reported outcomes (PRO) iPad app used in clinical setting

RhEumAtic Disease ActivitY (READY) captures patient-reported outcomes to help physicians render better clinical care. The app, which runs on an iPad, collects PROs and can use clinician derived data to provide clinical decision support in rheumatology practices.

Health Tracking Apps: MyHealthTrack, Statinterface

iOS native app to track health parameters for various disease areas

Heath tracking apps created by RIT provide scheduled tasks and reminders to patients to maintain their treatment regimens. Using manual data input and data from Fitbit and Bluetooth monitors, these apps provide visualizations and notifications to patients regarding their progress.

Portal for Research (HEAL, NASDC)

Scalable research communication platform

RIT provides a platform with dashboards, a document repository, viewers for images and PDFs and infrastructure for shared communication. The platform links to OAuth 2.0 based secure authentication system so that protected research components can be accessed and shared securely.

Learn more about the Portal for Research

Clinical Decision Support Systems

PHORA

PHORA: Pulmonary Hypertension Outcomes Risk Assessment was developed as a clinical decision support system for clinicians. It provides a user-friendly interface to calculate risk using different models and visualizes a patient’s risk level progression during a treatment regime.

How does research software development improve research?

Custom software solutions can be used to conduct research via modalities like usability studies, trials against a patient population to continuously gather data, and identifying areas to refine a tool that can be positioned for use beyond just the research use case. They can also be used to disseminate research outcomes to a wider audience.

Purpose

From proof of concept to enterprise apps

Avoid transaction costs by having one team oversee the entire development process

Facilitate
research

Enable secure collaboration through software

Share apps with a wider community

Showcase outcomes by sharing webapps with the research community

RIT's approach

Develop modular components

RIT's software development strategy is to iteratively innovate and develop pluggable modular components using the latest technologies and frameworks to continuously contribute to the project’s research goals. This methodology allows us to be receptive to changes and enhancement in a shorter lead time to make the product scalable in the long run.

Iterate and refine

We implement software features iteratively and keep the customers engaged for feedback. Using an Agile software methodology, we can make sure we are on track and reduce time and effort needed on any required adjustments.

Development with best practices

We develop applications that meet compliance and security standards while remaining robust. To do so, we adopt modern software engineering practices like continuous integration, test-driven development, containerized deployment and software as a service (SaaS). In addition, we partner with Ohio State Wexner Medical Center's security team to create software that adheres to the Information Security Control Requirements specific to the project.