The H3ABioNet Helpdesk: an Online Bioinformatics Resource, Enhancing Africa's Capacity for Genomics Research

Overview

Journal BMC Bioinformatics

Publisher Biomed Central

Specialty Biology

Date 2020 Jan 1

PMID 31888443

Citations 4

Authors

Judit Kumuthini

Lyndon Zass

Sumir Panji

Samson P Salifu

Jonathan K Kayondo

Victoria Nembaware

Mamana Mbiyavanga

Ajayi Olabode

Ali Kishk

Gordon Wells

Nicola J Mulder

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Currently, formal mechanisms for bioinformatics support are limited. The H3Africa Bioinformatics Network has implemented a public and freely available Helpdesk (HD), which provides generic bioinformatics support to researchers through an online ticketing platform. The following article reports on the H3ABioNet HD (H3A-HD)'s development, outlining its design, management, usage and evaluation framework, as well as the lessons learned through implementation.

Results: The H3A-HD evaluated using automatically generated usage logs, user feedback and qualitative ticket evaluation. Evaluation revealed that communication methods, ticketing strategies and the technical platforms used are some of the primary factors which may influence the effectivity of HD.

Conclusion: To continuously improve the H3A-HD services, the resource should be regularly monitored and evaluated. The H3A-HD design, implementation and evaluation framework could be easily adapted for use by interested stakeholders within the Bioinformatics community and beyond.

Citing Articles

Current data science capacity building initiatives for health researchers in LMICs: global & regional efforts.

Kiosia A, Boylan S, Retford M, Marques L, Bueno F, Kirima C Front Public Health. 2024; 12():1418382.

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Developing Clinical Phenotype Data Collection Standards for Research in Africa.

Zass L, Johnston K, BenKahla A, Chaouch M, Kumuthini J, Radouani F Glob Health Epidemiol Genom. 2023; 2023:6693323.

PMID: 37766808 PMC: 10522421. DOI: 10.1155/2023/6693323.

A pan-African pathogen genomics data sharing platform to support disease outbreaks.

Christoffels A, Mboowa G, van Heusden P, Makhubela S, Githinji G, Mwangi S Nat Med. 2023; 29(5):1052-1055.

PMID: 37161068 DOI: 10.1038/s41591-023-02266-y.

H3AGWAS: a portable workflow for genome wide association studies.

Brandenburg J, Clark L, Botha G, Panji S, Baichoo S, Fields C BMC Bioinformatics. 2022; 23(1):498.

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