Assumptions:
·Research scientists want to know what others have done or are doing in order to strengthen their knowledge base.
·Research information resides in various publications/data sets hosted in a variety of public or private domains.
 
Background:
A research scientist can use his/her own research data to correlate findings from other research scientists in order to determine who has worked or is working in this research area, with a focus on what others have studied, who performed the research, whether the researchers’ area of interest is relevant to their own research. If and when they find a match, they can look at the data set for further analysis if available. This type of correlation can also be performed within their own data set
 
Proposal:
Develop a way to enable a research scientist to query online publications and data sets based on their interest (e.g., key words, etc.). Allow the end user to define which platform(s) or other filtering elements as part of advanced search. Once queried, show the result in drill down fashion, starting name, title, contact information, etc. Further drill down will show publications and data sets. The level of detail is based on data set. Publically provided data from a platform like Pubmed will be readily available. But if the collaboration is established among universities and private companies then those could be used as well. This is really a matter of how much we collaborate within and outside.
 
Example:
user search on keyword: brca
 
The system searches on various platforms such as UCSF research DB, UC research DB, Pubmed, cochrane, medlineplus, Europe PubMed Central, Amgen, Genzyme, Genentech, Novartish.....
 
 
Level 1 result: Publication titles, names, contact information, etc.
 
Level 2 result: The whole publication
 
Level 3 result: Data set used
Level 4 Operation/Result: Do correlated query among others data sets with option of including your own

This enables the researcher scientist to contact the associated researcher. Then if allowed and available more reference data can be queried whether from system or directly from the source (the contacted researcher).

A tool like this could enhance medical research and collaboration tremendously.

The system could be as simple as providing names and contact information at first, and then expanded by adding more features to enable complex queries.

Just a thought!