Putting the idea of collaboration to work for the industry

On the other hand, I’m the sort of person who truly prefers to read (and report) good news over bad, when it exists.

By Editor on Apr 26, 2001

On the other hand, I'sm the sort of person who truly prefers to read (and report) good news over bad, when it exists. So, I wanted to take the opportunity to introduce you to a group of folks striving to make good news happen in our industry and in many others.

OMG, the Object Management Group, is the world's largest software consortia, with more than 800 members collaborating to create and popularize object-oriented specifications and standards. According to Scott Markel, the co-chair of OMG's Life Sciences Research Domain Task Force, OMG members, including the likes of IBM, HP, Sun and Microsoft, donate technical development work geared toward the creation of tools and components that are guaranteed to interoperate.

The Life Sciences Task Force, now four years old, boasts 40 member organizations ranging from big pharma and biotech companies to service and solutions providers. Participation in the task force is open and the group's mission is set by its participants. Working groups include cheminformatics, clinical trials, gene expression, laboratory equipment control, proteins, architecture and roadmaps, and visualization and user interfaces.

The group has several RFPs (requests for proposals) underway one in the area of gene expression and one in chemical structure, and a third just in on clinical trials. Markel told recent eyeforpharma West 2001 conference attendees that efforts on clinical trial standards are being coordinated with the group's counterparts at CDISC (the Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium).

It's always nice to see a working example of industry-wide collaboration. The work OMG is doing is just the kind of collaborative effort so many of the conference's speakers were touting as necessary for the future success of the industry.

If you'sd like to learn more about OMG, visit the group's Web site at omg.com). We'sve already done the hardest part by recognizing the need to collaborate, and validated it by saying it out loud, in unison. Now do the easy part, take the first step and join a group like OMG or CDISC and begin developing collaborative relationships for the good of the industry.