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SynapseNewspaper
The UCSF Student
synapse.ucsf.edu | Thursday, April 2, 2015 | Volume 59, Number 12
May I have a peek? Preparing to Make Reuse of publicly available biomedical data is increasing and Evidence-Based producing some great successes Career Decisions By Megan Laurance Contributing Writer
E volving scientific culture and policy are directing more and more biomedical
data into public data repositories. A number of the recent data sharing policy changes from funders and publishers were designed to improve data management and data sharing practices with the end goal of making it easy for researchers to discover and reuse biomedical datasets. However, not all researchers greet these policy changes with open arms, often questioning the proposed value and likelihood of their research data being reused. This issue came to a head in early 2014 when the non-profit publisher PLOS (Public Library of Science) updated their data sharing policy to require that authors provide a statement describing where the data would be deposited. The policy essentially went from “tell us how you plan to share your data” to “show us where the data is.” Many researchers objected to this new data policy. One frequently cited concern was that researchers would bear a tremendous cost – in time to describe and deposit their data and risk of getting scooped by other researchers publishing on their data – while receiving little benefit. In addition, they expressed doubt about the
By Bill Lindstaedt Contributing Writer
likelihood of their data being productively reused: for an excellent summary of the controversy that arose from PLOS’s data sharing policy and level-headed response, please take a look at this blog post from the California Digital Library’s blog DataPub. Widespread and productive use of public datasets So, what’s the deal? Are most research datasets so unique and complex that no one would bother trying to find them, let alone mine them for new insights? Who is reusing biomedical data? Well, it turns out, lots of people, both inside and outside of biomedical research institutions. You don’t need to look any further than Atul Butte, , MD, PhD who will lead UCSF’s Institute for Computational Biology, starting in April. Dr. Butte and his research lab provide us with great examples of the benefits of open data, and the value and novel discovery that can come from reanalysis of open, biomedical big data. At last year’s International Digital Curation Center Conference, Dr. Butte gave a fantastic presentation outlining some of his lab’s data reuse strategies and results. The
BIOMEDICAL DATA » PAGE 6
“M y friend told me that I should think about a career in medical writing because there are lots of jobs, and they need PhD’s, and I like to write. But—my friend also said writers tend to be freelancers, and I need a regular paycheck since I have a family. I haven’t been able to find much information about medical writing but I’m pretty sure it’s not right for me.”
about a potentially viable career path based on incorrect or incomplete information.
This all-too-typical statement demonstrates two huge mistakes made by many graduate students and postdoctoral fellows as they try to gather information about their career options. 1. Graduate students and postdocs rely too heavily on uninformed advice from labmates or other friends when making career decisions. That leads to misinformation and overgeneralization. When trainees make career decisions based on generalized statements such as: “Medical writers are freelancers,” or “Management consulting is a bad fit for me because it requires 100% travel,” it’s an indication that they have not learned enough about that career path. They are in danger of making an important decision
Are there medical-writing careers that do not require freelancing? Yes, most of them, probably. Is it possible to find consulting firms or subfields or niches that allow
CAREER DECISIONS » PAGE 6
Precision Medicine Student Alliance Elective By Priya Jayachandran and Chris Foo Contributing Writers
T he field of precision medicine has been garnering tremendous attention
lately. From President Barack Obama’s Precision Medicine Initiative (https:// w w w. w h i t e h o u s e . g o v / t h e - p r e s s office/2015/01/30/fact-sheet-presidentobama-s-precision-medicine-initiative) to the recent appointment of medical informatics expert Atul Butte, MD, PhD as leader of UCSF’s new Institute for Computational Health Sciences, the trend of genomics-guided medicine is taking center stage nationwide and on
campus. Second and third-year School of Pharmacy students Dalga Surofchy, Chris Foo, Priya Jayachandran, Lilian Kibathi, and Dor Keyvani founded the Precision Medicine Student Alliance (PMSA) last year. Today, the organization’s aim is to educate students about precision medicine by bringing together innovative minds actively working in the field from across the Bay Area. This Spring, PMSA is staying true to their mission by offering a 1-day elective
course on precision medicine. The elective, entitled Precision & Personalized Medicine: Healthcare Frontiers, will take place on Saturday, April 11, 2015. This 1-day conference will pull together leaders from industry and academia to highlight innovation in precision medicine. Invited speakers from 23andMe, the Gladstone Institutes, Genomic Health, and several UCSF Institutes and Centers of Excellence will share their insight on recent advances and challenges in the field.
PRECISION MEDICINE » PAGE 6