Charilaos Lygidakis*, Ray Emitters Team, Bologna, Italy Silvio Cambiaso*, Ray Emitters Team, Bologna, Italy Nicola Masella, Ray Emitters Teams, Bologna, Italy Track: Business Presentation Topic: Collaborative biomedical research, academic / scholarly communication, publishing and peer review Presentation Type: Rapid-Fire Presentation Submission Type: Single Presentation Building: Joseph B. Martin Conference Center at Harvard Medical School Room: B-Bray Room Date: 2012-09-15 04:45 PM – 05:30 PM Last modified: 2012-09-16

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Background
Collaborative research may be challenging for researchers and clinicians working in certain contexts. Several issues are attributable to the limited resources in areas with low research capacity, the use of paper questionnaires and the consequent data inconsistency, the small Electronic Medical Records installation base, the user-unfriendly and unstandardized programs and the workload. There may also be difficulties in coordinating and engaging researchers located in different geographical regions, and in reaching rural and isolated areas.

Aim
The aim of the Lumos! platform is to enable teams of researchers, clinicians and institutes to create questionnaires online, set up multicentric studies with a specific methodology and facilitate data collection from samples both online and offline.

Methods and Key Technological Aspects
The platform is focused on healthcare research and is web-based, cross-platform and highly-tailored. It features tools that aid the creation of questionnaires with customizable fields and variables, their organization in libraries, the design of different types of studies (for instance, with multiple cohorts, cross-sectional and longitudinal studies) and the management of subjects participating in more than one studies. There are also tools that allow the creation of anonymous surveys via email, the creation of reports and the export of the databases for external statistical analysis. Furthermore, optional offline functionality is provided, which may be of help to clinicians carrying out house calls or to those working in rural areas with intermittent Internet connection. The synchronization of all the data with those stored on the cloud occurs when the Internet connection is available.
Currently, the solution is distributed as a stand-alone software package, consisting of the server software and the program that enables the offline functionality. The platform yields a good scalability for large number of data and registered researchers.

Expected Results
We expect that our solution will save time and decrease the financial and operational burden for research institutes and healthcare professionals. It can minimize the costs related to the management of the studies, especially when large territories are involved, and increase the efficiency by achieving higher engagement from the participants, better compliance to a rigorous methodology and greater data consistency. Moreover, being a cloud-based platform, there are savings in project budgets thanks to the low hardware and IT requirements. The ease of use of the web-based interface may also decrease the time required for personnel training.

Conclusion
The Lumos! Platform has been built to facilitate teams of researchers conducting multicenter studies, especially in countries and contexts with low research capacity. Future developments include enhancements in usability for tablets, the creation of a separate mobile app and the launch of this solution as a service. We will also focus on developing and implementing new features for the optimization of participation rates of researchers and subjects.