Making Biomedical Research More Like Airbnb

Philip E. Bourne, PhD, FACMIAssociate Director for Data Science

The National Institutes of Health

http://www.slideshare.net/pebournephilip.bourne@nh.gov

I am not crazy, hear me out• Airbnb is a platform that supports a trusted relationship between

consumer (renter) and supplier (host)• The platform focuses on maximizing the exchange of services

between supplier and consumer and maximizing the amount of trust associated with a given stakeholder

• It seems to be working: • 60 million users searching 2 million listings in 192 countries • Average of 500,000 stays per night. • Evaluation of US $25bn

Is not biomedical research the same?

Why a comparison to Airbnb is not fair• Airbnb was born digital

• The exchange of services on Airbnb are simple compared to what is required of a platform to support biomedical research

Nevertheless there is much to be learnt

Is not biomedical research the same?

Author Submission via the Web Depositor Submission via the Web

Syntax Checking Syntax Checking

Review by Scientists &Editors

Review by Annotators

Corrections by Author Corrections by Depositor

Publish – Web Accessible Release – Web Accessible

Similar Processes Lead to Similar Resources

Bourne, PLoS Comp. Biol. 2005 1(3) e34de Waard Nature Proceedings 2010 10101/npre.2010.4742.1

What is different is the perceived value of each to the research enterprise. That value difference is diminishing in part because of openness, accessibility, policy, governance, increased data reuse and lets not forget other forms of madness…

The Analog-Digital Data Knowledge Cycle

P.E. Bourne, 2016, There is No Intelligent Life Down There

Paper Author Paper Reader

Data Provider Data Consumer

Employer Employee

Reagent Provider Reagent Consumer

Software Provider Software Consumer

Grant Writer Grant Reviewer

Supplier ConsumerSc

hola

rly W

orkfl

owPlatform

MS ProjectGoogle Drive

CourseraResearchgateAcademia.eduOpen Science Framework

SynapseF1000

Rio

Educator Student

Platforms - The Situation Today

In summary there is not currently a widely adopted single platform for the exchange of services in biomedical research. Either there is a platform per service or no platform at all.  Why have we not done better and what are the impediments today?

Impediments to a biomedical platform

• Current work practices by all stakeholders• Entrenched business models• Size of the undertaking aka resources needed• Trust• Incentives to use the platform

http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnhall/2013/04/29/10-barriers-to-employee-innovation/#8bdbaa811133

The NIH through the Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K) is experimenting with a platform, keeping in mind the need to overcome these impediments

Enter The Commons

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ealing_Common#/media/File:Ealing_Common_-_geograph.org.uk_-_17075.jpg

Paper Author Paper Reader

Data Provider Data Consumer

Employer Employee

Reagent Provider Reagent Consumer

Software Provider Software Consumer

Grant Writer Grant Reviewer

Supplier ConsumerSc

hola

rly W

orkfl

owPlatform

MS ProjectGoogle Drive

CourseraResearchgateAcademia.eduOpen Science Framework

SynapseF1000

Rio

Educator Student

Commons – Initial focus is on integrating two layers of the scholarly workflow

Commons Topology

Compute Platform: Cloud or HPC

Services: APIs, Containers, Indexing,

Software: Services & Tools

scientific analysis tools/workflows

Data“Reference” Data Sets

User defined data

Digital Object Com

pliance

App store/User Interface

PaaS

SaaS

IaaS

https://datascience.nih.gov/commons

Commons Compliance

• Treat products of research – data, methods, papers etc. as digital objects

• These digital objects exist in a shared virtual space

• Digital object compliance through FAIR principles:

• Findable• Accessible (and usable)• Interoperable • Reusable

NIH + Community defined data sets

possible FOAs and CCM

BD2K Centers, MODS, HMP & InteroperabilitySupplements

Cloud credits model (CCM)

BioCADDIE/OtherIndexing

NCI & NIAID Cloud Pilots

Compute Platform: Cloud or HPC

Services: APIs, Containers, Indexing,

Software: Services & Tools

scientific analysis tools/workflows

Data“Reference” Data Sets

User defined data

Digital Object Com

pliance

App store/User Interface

Mapping BD2K Activities to the Commons Topology

https://datascience.nih.gov/commons

Incentives• Airbnb

• Monetize unutilized space

• Ease of use

• New vacation experience

• Commons• Need to improve rigor and

reproducibility• Productivity• Sustainability

• Education and training

• Opportunity to undertake elastic compute on large complex data

Summary• NIH has endorsed the Commons and the FAIR principles

• The Commons is the beginnings of a platform from which to conduct biomedical research

• Over the next 1-2 years we are conducting pilots to evaluate the feasibility of the Commons

• If feasible the intent is to expand into additional layers of the scholarly research lifecycle

“I really admire Airbnb as a pioneer of the sharing economy and for building community. They've found an elegant way to help hosts make more money and for guests to have authentic experiences. It brings those people together in a unique way. “

Logan Green

“The Commons is an effort at creating a sharing economy and for building community. We hope for a more cost effective and productive research environment while bringing people together in a unique way. “

Phil Bourne

Speaking of a shared economy…

You are invited to contribute to a shared document that describes this concept..

You will be acknowledged and the document put forward for NIH clearance to be blogged/preprinted/published….

https://docs.google.com/document/d/18WHyncBSvMNkD2h98eXf6BF7D_6fG_Ysi2ecInEIdR4/edit#heading=h.ybszlhx51mar

Acknowledgements

• ADDS Office: Vivien Bonazzi, Jennie Larkin, Michelle Dunn, Mark Guyer, Allen Dearry, Sonynka Ngosso, Tonya Scott, Lisa Dunneback, Vivek Navale (CIT/ADDS)

• NCBI: George Komatsoulis• NHGRI: Valentina di Francesco

• NIGMS: Susan Gregurick

• CIT: Debbie Sinmao, Andrea Norris

• NIH Common Fund: Jim Anderson , Betsy Wilder, Leslie Derr

• NCI Cloud Pilots/ GDC: Warren Kibbe, Tony Kerlavage, Tanja Davidsen

• Commons Reference Data Set Working Group: Weiniu Gan (HL), Ajay Pillai (HG), Elaine Ayres, (BITRIS), Sean Davis (NCI), Vinay Pai (NIBIB), Maria Giovanni (AI), Leslie Derr (CF), Claire Schulkey (AI)

• RIWG Core Team: Ron Margolis (DK), Ian Fore, (NCI), Alison Yao (AI), Claire Schulkey (AI), Eric Choi (AI)

• OSP: Dina Paltoo, Kris Langlais, Erin Luetkemeier, Agnes Rooke,

NIH…Turning Discovery Into Health

philip.bourne@nih.govhttps://datascience.nih.gov/

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/research/staff/bourne/