Facilitating Blinded Data Acquisition and Analysis to Increase Rigor in Biomedical Research

Project Summary AbstractRecentlythe NIH and various journals issued guidelines intended to increase rigor in biomedical scienceThe removal of bias through blinding was identified as a central means for improving rigorThe effects of unintentional bias can be easy to overlookand blinding procedures are often time consuming and tediousDue to this perceived lack of need and high effort requirementblinding is only applied when absolutely necessary in preclinical biomedical researchThe guidelines released by the NIH and various journals should correct the misperception that blinding isn t neededbut a lack of efficiency continues to prevent wide adoption of blinding techniquesIt is simply impractical to task lab personnel with hours of relabeling samples or files and maintaining logsThough some researchers possess the prerequisite programming skillscreating custom code to rename batches of files is time consuminghas narrow applicabilityand is not user friendly typically requiring that the user also have programming experience to execute the codeThere are currently no tools available to aid researchers in performing blinded experimentation and analysisSciBlinder will be the first platform designed to facilitate blindingWe will remove the burden from the researcherenabling them to comply with new guidelines and improve scientific rigor throughout the biomedical communityWe recognize that for various reasons blinding is not compatible with every experimental technique or stageand we seek to reduce the burden on the researchernot add to itThereforeSciBlinder will provide the flexibility to blind at different sample stages and assign different permissions to lab personnelWe will focus on delivering a functionalrobust product with complete data fidelityThe final product will also provide an effortlessly accessibleuser friendly experienceWe believe that a product built on principles of flexibilityfunctionalityand accessibility will achieve maximal adoption of blinded techniques throughout the research communityWe propose to develop and test a prototype of the code and a basic graphical user interface for this software during phase one developmentWe present straightforwardachievable aims and milestones along with highly motivatedexperienced key personnel ready to execute this project and prepare for transition to exciting advances in phase two Project NarrativeThe NIH has issued guidelines thatamong other thingscall for utilization of blinding to reduce bias and increase scientific rigorbut blinding remains rare in preclinical biomedical research due to inefficiencies inherent to the techniquesWe will provide the first platform facilitating blinded data acquisition and analysisThis flexiblefunctionaland accessible software will make blindingand unblindingeffortlessthereby increasing adoption of unbiasedrigorous techniques throughout the biomedical research community