The Informatics Module is working across the Modules to create unique solutions for data management, visualisation and analysis. Our primary goal is to develop tools and methods for estimating the risk of antimalarial drug resistance for populations in malaria endemic countries.
What we do
Data Sharing and Security
Data sharing depends on the willingness of members of the research community to share their data with WWARN. Providing a secure repository for submitted data, coupled with a secure online submission system, are therefore key. The Informatics Module has developed the WWARN Data Repository, a custom data management system to cater for these needs.
Managing Diversity - Data Curation
Deriving estimates of risk and other valuable metrics from data contributed from many different sources also depends on methods and systems for coping with the diversity in those data. Data are naturally represented in different formats and structures, and different studies are interested in different variables. Curating these diverse data involves defining data standards, transforming contributed data and extracting key variables. Curation is being led by the other WWARN modules, however the Informatics Module supports data curation through the development of the WWARN Data Repository, which facilitates collaboration between curators and contributors, and captures basic audit trail records. We also work with the other modules in the development of data standards, and methods and tools for data transformation.
Finding the Hidden Value - Exploring and Visualising Data
We believe there is significant hidden value in currently available data especially for those charged with making policy decisions to manage the emergence and spread of antimalarial resistance. To enable others to discover valuable insights from data contributed to WWARN, the Informatics Module is developing a suite of novel, interactive web-based data visualisation tools, known as WWARN Explorer. The WWARN Explorer preview is online now.
Using WWARN Explorer you can search for studies in several different ways (e.g. by geographical region and drug treatment). For each study, some key graphical outputs can be viewed, such as survival curves for clinical studies. We are developing tools for visualising data aggregated across studies in a given region, for example, to spot trends in time and space. Contributed data is not available to the public, however WWARN Explorer focuses on those valuable analyses and visualisations that can be shared without compromising privacy or intellectual property.
