Press Release

The Life Science Information Technology Global Institute (LSIT), which develops reference guidelines for IT systems in the life and health sciences, is announcing changes to its board of directors, effective immediately.

As of our board meeting of August 17, 2007, we are pleased to announce that Elaine Wuertz has taken the helm as chairperson of the LSIT board of directors.

She follows Geoff Odell who has completed his term as chairperson of LSIT and will remain on the board as chair emeritus. Mr. Odell is taking on a new role with Novartis as Vice President, Global Head of Development IT. We wish to congratulate Geoff as he embarks on this exciting role with Novartis (Basel, Switzerland). He will be based in New Jersey where much of the clinical development is managed.

Since LSIT's founding in 2004, both Geoff Odell and Elaine Wuertz have spearheaded major projects for the development of Good Informatics Practices (GIP). They have provided strategic leadership to LSIT and helped to establish operations and processes for building the organization as a whole. These include the Technology Advisory Board (TAB) and the Go-Team which facilitates individual chapter team progress. Geoff and Elaine both engender a positive, upbeat, and supportive culture within LSIT. LSIT is known as an open, publicly accessible organization that reaches out to provide support and success to the Life Science and IT community and its volunteers. Education and networking opportunities have become essential attributes that LSIT has delivered, providing value by helping individuals to develop professionally through active collaboration within the industry.

LSIT Founder Howard Asher, explains that "The Life Science Information Technology Global Institute was founded on the premise that alignment and structured methods of guidance will result in cost savings and a shorter time to market for candidate products that enhance healthcare and human life. What the International Conference for Harmonization did for developing Good Clinical Practices guidance we can do for Good Informatics Practices. This has never been done before and that's what makes it so exciting to work on. It is an initiative whose time has come."

Elaine Wuertz observes, "Our challenge at LSIT is benchmarking to a level of quality and trust that the GxPs have created. However, in working on the Information Technology side of the equation, there are many facets that broaden the scope and depth of what must be addressed within a Good Informatics Practices Guidance for Life Sciences, which has never been done before. To be comprehensive and complete in our body of knowledge and resources, we have regulatory agencies and standards organizations that affect IT such as FDA, IEEE, ISO, ITIL, HSS. We reference their standard or code. We work in collaboration with the important and relevant systems organizations who are already addressing critical needs through standards, such as : GAMP, CDISC, W3C, HL7, and PDA to name a few."

Steven Fouskarinis has been inducted into the LSIT board as Corporate Secretary. Steven has been actively involved with LSIT for over 18 months. He brings his talent for creative thinking and problem solving to the organization. Living by his mantra of "adaptive intelligence," he is demonstrating true leadership as we continue to grow a strong well-developed organization. Steven says, "It's all about the people; they are the users of GIP who are going to drive significant improvement and quality in IT, be they IT Directors or finance and accounting managers, that will help life sciences and healthcare organizations all over the world leverage what technologies can really do to get safe therapies to market faster."

LSIT is a volunteer organization comprised of people who range from expert to novice and represent various industries all of whom can lend expertise and insight to the unique needs of Life Science IT.

About the Life Science Information Technology Global Institute:

The Life Sciences Information Technology (LSIT) Global Institute a non-profit organization dedicated to developing open, publicly available Good Informatics Practices (GIP) Guidelines for the life and health sciences communities. The effective and appropriate use of IT offers the possibility to reduce both the time and cost of bringing new medical therapeutics and products from discovery to the patient. The organization's members are an alliance of leading global life sciences and information technology companies, renowned academic and medical research institutions, healthcare providers, payors and representatives from government regulatory agencies worldwide.

What is GIP:

The Good Informatics Practices Guidance Document (GIP) is a newly drafted comprehensive body of information of regulatory requirements in the form of existing (GLP, GMP, GCP and Part 11) and currently used standards compiled in one reference guide for an IT system of a life science or healthcare environment.