U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command's Enterprise Information Technology Project Management Office project manager Darrin Good is so busy these days he's barely had enough time to look up from his laptop. Sitting in the corner of a modest office overrun with software manuals, computer cables and little else, he jokes that his relatively spartan surroundings mirror his longtime professional outlook. "I'm an old acquisition guy," says Good, who's been at MRDC since 2005. "I want to keep things as simple as possible."

That personal ethos is likely to be tested in the coming months as Good, along with the entire eIT PMO team, prepares to launch a new and novel enterprise research management system across the entirety of MRDC and its direct reporting units. The software system, called the Laboratory Information Management System, is intended to improve how research is performed across the command via a platform that allows for more harmonious data sharing and data management at the researcher level. From Good's perspective, the move is – in the simplest of terms – integral to ensuring MRDC continues to run at top speed. "This is the digital transformation of our laboratories," he says. "We need to make sure all of our labs step into the 21st century when it comes to information technology."

For the eIT PMO team, the sprawling effort – the initial version of which was launched in October – is a somewhat natural extension of the two existing capability suites the team currently sustains across the command: the Medical Research Information Technology System and the Biodefense Laboratory Management System. MeRITS can most easily be described as researcher-level software that helps facilitation between MRDC entities and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the BLMS tool can be classified as a project and portfolio management software that allows leadership across all echelons of MRDC to maintain visibility of the status of all active research projects across the command.

Each platform comes equipped with its own exclusive features. The MeRITS suite of regulated capabilities, for example – sponsored by the MRDC Office of Regulated Activities – collects all research information required for data submission to the FDA. MeRITS further stores all of that data for the research, development and acquisition community to collaborate across the command and with internal agencies and partners. In short, it's a one-stop shop for the regulated clinical trial process and data storage, and further facilitates electronic business processes with the FDA. This saves MRDC both time and money.

"In my view, the eIT PMO office is absolutely required if you're going to do research in an FDA-regulated environment," says Heidi Hood, a regulatory systems manager at ORA. For her, the infrastructure of the eIT PMO – the systems engineers, the administrators and the security staffers – is where the team's greatest value is found. "We could not do our mission if we did not have eIT PMO," says Hood.

When it comes to BLMS, data entered into the platform tracks all required attributes about both projects and people, allowing for consolidated resource reporting across the command, supporting the command's strategic goals. This provides for increased transparency across all Army-funded intramural research projects. Further, BLMS has paved the way for the implementation of a variety of standardized processes across the command's science and technology enterprise.

Screenshot of the main screen for the Laboratory Information Management System. (Image credit: Heidi Hood, Office of Regulated Activities)

"It provides an enterprise-level common operating picture of all the projects that are being executed in the labs and how they align to mitigating the gaps and providing the capabilities that are needed for 2040," says Mark Dertzbaugh, Principal Assistant for Research and Technology at MRDC. Dertzbaugh notes the previous "bottom-up" model for funding projects – a model prevalent at MRDC just a decade ago – has since evolved to one focused on transitioning capabilities on a schedule-driven timeframe. "The key questions – such as what research projects are critical to closing certain capability gaps, and if we're on track to deliver these solutions on schedule – BLMS gives us the ability to keep tabs on that activity now," says Dertzbaugh.

That brings the conversation full-circle to LIMS, which Good and his team ultimately hope will improve the day-to-day efforts of all scientists across all MRDC laboratories by making data for all projects available to everyone across the command. In addition to allowing what amounts to a panoramic view of all current efforts, BLMS enables data-driven decisions to be funneled upwards to command leadership for review of real-time metrics, and – if required – sent even higher to both Army and DOD brass as well.

LIMS will be fueled in part by the aforementioned BLMS system, which will provide context for tagging research data collected by LIMS in order to find it in the future. The keyword here, according to Good, is efficiency. "This will improve their jobs, their way of life," says Good, referring to the thousands of scientists across MRDC. "And for the laboratories, LIMS should make them better too, because everything they'll need from a data standpoint will be readily accessible, and so it would improve the data capture and workflow of the lab."

There are challenges associated with the installation of such a system, of course. Good freely admits that since different labs do different things in different ways, any attempt to standardize a single function – let alone a series of functions on a brand new platform – is bound to invite initial confusion. That possibility is seen as necessary, however, for more robust, long-term success down the line.

"We are getting closer to our goals of having an integrated R&D data ecosystem, and we are moving to where we need to go in order to provide the capabilities needed for multi-domain operations in the 2040 timeframe," says Dertzbaugh.

That brings us back to Good, still busy in his office, still developing the information technology system that will likely be integral to maintaining the future capacity and impact of the command. As someone who's been with eIT PMO since its launch in 2009, he knows how important efficiency, accuracy and transparency are at MRDC.

"In a way, our frontline is where the medical researcher is," says Good. "We try to make things better for the people who make things better for the Warfighter."