People and organizational issues in research systems implementation

Knowledge about people and organizational issues pertinent to implementation and maintenance of clinical systems has grown steadily over the past fifteen years. Less is known about implementation of systems used for clinical and biomedical research. In conjunction with current National Institutes of Health Roadmap efforts that promote translational research, these issues should now be identified and addressed. During the 2007 American College of Medical Informatics Symposium, members discussed behavioral aspects of translational informatics. This article summarizes that discussion, which covered organizational issues, implications of how knowledge about clinical systems implementation can inform research systems implementation, and those issues unique to each kind of system.