How MD Anderson Advanced Cancer Research with Curefaster

The Challenge: Modernize Antiquated Research Processes

Researchers spend too much time managing data instead of performing research. Spreadsheet-based data collection and dissemination strategies result in siloed data that is difficult to understand, analyze and share. In addition, with minimal enforced standardization, data validation or audit tracking, data integrity is difficult to maintain. Most importantly, the inability to relate and analyze data across experiments hinders hypothesis generation.

The Approach: Targeting Plans to Streamline the Cancer Research Process

MD Anderson set out to achieve our common goal of curing cancer by improving researchers’ workflow, partnering with LaunchPad Lab. We sat down with researchers, clinicians, data coordinators, and administrators to identify the largest areas of need for the Department of Genitourinary Medical Oncology. It turned out that the department’s laboratory for generating patient-derived tumor xenograft models was becoming a research bottleneck. By focusing our initial efforts there, we could have a large impact while improving many parts of the research process.

The Solution: Creating a Seamless UX/UI for Cancer Research

Providing researchers, scientists and doctors with a platform to input and query data was at the heart of this application. This project’s focus was not on designing a beautiful interface. It was about creating an interface that these groups could all use to communicate. The application needed to satisfy each user’s needs and put them on the same playing field. Our main concentration was on the interactions and immediate feedback a user received when data was input or queried. It was crucial that each button, form, and action produced accurate results, good or bad.