The SRC is located within the Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders at the Brigham and Women's Hospital, a primary teaching hospital of the adjacent Harvard Medical School.
All research activities, including technical work and project management, take place in the centrally located SRC research facility that is designed to enhance the cohesion and communication among project team members as well as promote smooth and efficient operations. Data analyses are performed by highly trained personnel using a variety of statistical software packages including SAS and R.
Big Data Capabilities
The SRC maintains dedicated workstations for analysis of sleep data. The systems are fully secured, and facilitate access to highly reliable file storage and secure file transmission systems for receipt and transmission of de-identified data. Partners Information Services (IS), a division within Partner Healthcare Systems (PHS), manages all data and voice communication networks as well as other core infrastructure systems and applications across the Partners environment with a budget of over $300M per annum. The PHS data network provides 100 MB Ethernet connections to the desktop with 1 GB access layer connections to the core. When required, higher bandwidth connections are available to the desktop. The network core consists of redundant connections among 4 major datacenters located in MGH Boston, Charlestown, BWH Longwood Medical Area, and Needham, MA. Redundancy is maintained from all areas of the network to the institution's Internet Service Provider.
Data Security
All computer workstations are maintained and supported by Brigham and Women's Hospital and Partners Corporation Information Systems. All workstations have institutional level virus protection software, are locked when not in use, and require a staff-specific user name and password for logon. The SRC maintains strict policies regarding safeguarding and adheres to industry best practices for password management and user access auditing. All work related to a specific project is saved within secure network spaces accessible only to team members authorized to work on the study. This network is accessible only by SRC staff members who are granted permission by the SRC Administrative Director. Institution-wide backup of all server data is performed nightly, and SRC project-specific data are additionally stored on secured servers with remote redundant back-up protection. The Partners Corporation operates under a full compendium of policies related to Emergency Management and Disaster Recovery policies that address data recovery and upstart after any unexpected and unforeseen catastrophe. PHS has necessary physical and operational securities in place for all operational controls to meet or exceed Federal and State security and privacy regulations. PHS restricts, monitors, and controls access to systems by authorized staff who additionally have signed confidentiality and ethical pledges to safeguard data.
Fully Supported by Partners Infrastructure
Partners Information Services (IS) manages all data and voice communication networks as well as other core infrastructure systems and applications across the Partners environment. Cloud-based, virtual services are available to researchers and are maintained using enterprise-class IT systems within the Partners secure data center and within the Partners network.
