Project:
A top 10 US Research University's Conflict of Interest Application

Relevancies:
All schools in university, including School of Medicine, Business School, Law School, School of Communications, etc

Summary:
Conflict of Interest (COI) is a situation in which researchers have external contract work, financial interest or otherwise that might skew the results of their research. The researchers on new and ongoing projects or regularly asked to "disclose" their outside work or significant financial interests, and these disclosures are carefully reviewed. The process is integral in maintaining the integrity of this University's research.

This University had recently engaged a third-party vendor to build a new Conflict of Interest system. In addition to participating in the analysis, kick off and development of this system, I have also been heavily involved in determining workflows for some of the more complicated processes that are new to even our vendor.

One of these is the Advance Request known as "Prior Activity Approval Request." The idea is that before a researcher signs a contract for work with an external company, that contract is reviewed and approved by the oversight committee.

I worked closely with the Medical School to flush out their requirements, developing a complex workflow for this process and wireframing the user experience so we can clearly identify our needs and convey them to the vendor.