IT in traditional Chinese medicine research management

The National Medical Research Council (NMRC) is Singapore's funding and administrating organization to support medical research in the nation. Its basic activities range from grant application to project financial management. With the ever increasing interest and rapid development of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) research, NMRC has embarked on an information system to consolidate Singapore based TCM study. With the aid of information technology, the TCM Research Information System (TCM-RIS) reported here is able to provide various functions for TCM related information collecting, information processing, information retrieving and information sharing. TCM-RIS works together with the NMRC's grant application and project management systems to support the whole chains of funding and managing of TCM research including peer-review process and granted project management. This paper addresses the design, development and application of the TCM Research Information System. With a major goal to promote, coordinate and fund medical research in Singapore, National Medical Research Council (NMRC) has provided grants to more than 600 individual research projects; and funded about 13 national research programs since its inception in 1994. Each year, NMRC awards about 10 fellowships tenable overseas for medical researchers and research scientists. NMRC is also responsible for the strategy and priority setting in the national medical research. With the increasing interest and rapid development of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) research, NMRC has embarked on a nationwide information system to consolidate Singapore based TCM study. The primary objective of the TCM Research Information System (TCM-RIS) is to provide users with an information hub for the TCM research and development in Singapore. It is part of NMRC's information framework supporting the management of the national medical project funding from application submission to peer-review to granted project financial management. With the aid of information technology, TCM-RIS is able to provide various functions for information collecting, information processing, information retrieving and information sharing. TCM-RIS records all the TCM research projects currently done or undergoing in Singapore. TCM-RIS works together with the NMRC's grant application and project management systems. It supports the whole chains of funding and managing of TCM research including peer-review process and granted project financial control. Authorized users via NMRC network can register, access, and search all TCM related researches. Presently, an Intranet version is implemented at NMRC with the aid of information system management and database technologies. Informational management system is a fast growing field [1–6]. Various theories and methodologies have been developed. Van …