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BWH is a leader in biomedical research. But, with nearly 1,000 research faculty members, it’s not an easy task for researchers or patients to know who is working on what studies at any given point in time, or what studies researchers might have previously conducted.
BWH Find a Researcher, a new tool that launched Feb. 4, is helping to change that. Modeled after the Find a Doctor tool, Find a Researcher is BWH’s first data repository of faculty investigator profiles.
“This new initiative will improve the visibility of our research on the hospital’s website, and will also make it easier for BWH administrators and investigators to promote the esteemed science that takes place at BWH,” said Jacqueline Slavik, PhD, executive director of the Biomedical Research Institute (BRI). “Patients, clinicians and researchers can look at Find a Researcher and see who is working in what area, in every department and in every division.”
The Find a Researcher tool is available to members of the public as a link from Brigham and Women’s Hospital’s home page, www.brighamandwomens.org.
“A very useful feature is the ability to toggle back and forth between an individual’s clinical and research profile, which will allow patients to learn more about the research we do here, as well as what their physician is engaged in,” Slavik said.
Marianne Moore, RN, a nurse program manager in the Newborn Medicine Research Program, has been working with physicians and researchers in Newborn Medicine to make sure their profiles are up-to-date, identifying not only their research interests, but also grants they have.
“We thought it was incredibly important that parents have access to a resource that shows who is doing research in newborn medicine and their areas of focus,” said Moore. “It’s also important for collaborating researchers from Children’s Hospital and other institutions to be able to access this information.”
Moore adds that a third benefit to the Find a Researcher database is that it serves potential donors who might be interested in advancing science—in her case, the science of of neonatology.
“This database puts all the information they need at their fingertips,” she said.
BWH Find a Researcher pulls its data from four sources: BWH Faculty/Fellows Appointments and Credentialing Tracking System (FACTS), Harvard Catalyst Profiles, BWH Find a Doctor and PHS Research Applications. Data from BWH FACTS and Harvard Catalyst are updated automatically every night. Faculty investigators can also edit their own profiles.
“This site is easy to use on a number of fronts,” said Jeffrey Karp, PhD, co-director of the Center for Regenerative Therapeutics at BWH. “I’m impressed with how easy it is to access this site, how easy it is to look somebody up and how easy it is to update my own profile. It’s a well-crafted tool that will surely provide a lot of added value to both our internal and external Brigham community.”
Find a Researcher is a collaboration between the Office of the Senior Vice President for Research, the BRI, PHS Research Applications Group and the Center for Faculty Development and Diversity, with help from the Department of Marketing and Planning and the Harvard Catalyst Profiles team.
For more information, visit www.brighamandwomens.org/research/profiles