INSIGHTS
The Data-Sharing Dilemma Information technology executives confront tension in WIRING THE PHARMACEUTICAL LAB RICK MULLIN, C&EN NORTHEAST NEWS BUREAU
THE CHIEF INFORMATION officer (CIO) panel discussion, always
CAMBRIDGE HEALTHTECH INSTITUTE
At a presentation titled “Science Information as a Business Asthe centerpiece of the Bio-IT World Conference & Expo held each set,” John Koch, director of scientific information infrastructure spring in Boston, had a fun feature this year: a little table with a at Merck & Co., described efforts under way to manage data within whiskey bottle and shot glass for each of the six panelists. Kevin the walls of the laboratories at his company. The first order of busiDavies, editor-in-chief of Bio-IT ness, he explained, has been World magazine and the event’s defining the data of interest. moderator, warned that panel“Understand: We are not trying ists would be made to take a shot to boil the ocean,” he said. every time they used the term Koch said he is setting up “big data.” IT support for finding, accessGood thing there was only ing, and structuring data and water in the bottle. for breaking down silos within Call them what you want, but Merck. Asked whether creatdata in drug discovery are nothing such an IT-based research ing if not big. Data represent the culture within Merck effectively patient. They represent the drug, establishes another silo, Koch the cell, the experiment, and the clinical outcome. Data are the neepointed to a separate initiative CIOs (from left) Cris Ross of the Mayo Clinic, Gunaretnam dle and the haystack. As such, information technology (IT) profesat the company working on an Rajagopal of Johnson & sionals at drug and biopharmaceutical firms shatter the socially isooutwardly directed IT infraJohnson, Norris, Evard, lated computer-geek stereotype. They are analytical gurus and rockstructure. In effect, yes, Koch Trunnell, and Martin Leach of star scientists for the most part, and Bio-IT World, sponsored by the is working in a silo because he Biogen Idec. magazine and Cambridge Healthtech Institute, has for years been a has to. He acknowledged efforts celebration of their ascent to the highest levels of management. under way in the drug industry But this year’s event seemed to highlight the familiar dimension to harmonize IT protocols and share data, “but frankly I haven’t seen of their profession—the IT manager as high-tech plumber. There any successes.” was a lot of discussion about how to configure the computers. And a Accelrys, Oracle, and Hewlett-Packard were among the IT system dominant theme was the growing tension between internal IT and and software vendors on the Bio-IT World exhibit floor with product external IT. adaptations addressing collaborative data analysis. Frankly, much of what was presented threw cold water on the Folks in the booths acknowledged the tension between proprinotion that an epoch of collaboration has dawned in the pharmaetary and public infrastructure development. However, Etzard ceutical sector. The talk of intramural cloud computing eclipsed Stolte, chief technology officer of HP’s life sciences division, sugthat of the extramural. IT strategies, rather than parsing the big gested that, as far as technology is concerned, the distinction behaystack, seemed at every point to be dividing the haystack into tween public and private computing clouds is artificial. The silo efmany proprietary stacks, a process that seems immensely counterfect in research IT stems from traditional research culture. Haven’t productive given the cliché’s notion of there being only one needle. scientists gotten over their problems with sharing in the past few On the other hand, what is a CIO to do in the face of (pass the years? “No,” Stolte said. shot glass, please) big data. One must get one’s own house in order before reaching out to other houses, correct? THE CIO PANEL’S drinking game joke had run its course by the Panelist Remy Evard, CIO of the Novartis Institutes for Biomedtime NIH’s Norris mentioned her institute’s Big Data to Knowlical Research, noted that getting a handle on data is not so much a edge program, launched this year to promote the analytical skills challenge of volume, but of determining value. Matthew Trunnell, necessary to meet the data analytics challenge in drug discovery. CIO of the Broad Institute and another panelist, agreed The entire panel, in fact, seemed to be “over” the size that size matters less than structure and organization. issue and much more concerned with the conversion “We have for a lot of our history focused on data genera- Haven’t of data to knowledge across all the little information tion,” he said. “Now the focus inside the Broad is on worlds that are popping up, as one of the panelists scientists analysis, developing capabilities.” noted, like mushrooms. gotten But seated center stage, Andrea T. Norris, CIO of the That image may have registered with the moderator, over their National Institutes of Health, spoke of the need to look Davies, who promised that next year he will give the problems with panel a new buzzword. And real liquor. outside, which, in fairness, is a trend in research as drug sharing in companies place greater emphasis on partnerships. Norris noted that data-sharing policies have been written into the past few Views expressed on this page are those of the author the NIH grant process. years? “No.” and not necessarily those of ACS. CEN.ACS.ORG
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