IT in traditional Chinese medicine research management

Abstract

The National Medical Research Council (NMRC) is Singapore's funding and administrating organisation to support medical research in the nation. Its basic activities range from grant application to project financial management. With the ever increasing interest and rapid development of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) research, NMRC has embarked on an information system to consolidate Singapore based TCM study. With the aid of information technology, the TCM Research Information System (TCM-RIS) reported here is able to provide various functions for TCM related information collecting, information processing, information retrieving and information sharing. TCM-RIS works together with the NMRC's grant application and project management systems to support the whole chains of funding and managing of TCM research including peer-review process and granted project management. This paper addresses the design, development and application of the TCM Research Information System.