 How Amalga Life Sciences WorksDesigned for R&D organizations, Microsoft Amalga Life Sciences 2009 establishes a systems engineering approach to health and life sciences research by unlocking data and information assets, storing them as an innovative network of concepts and relationships, and promoting discovery and transformation of biological insights into clinical practice.
Amalga Life Sciences enables R&D organizations to: |
| 1. Load data from multiple systems. | Captures research and clinical data from disparate systems. Uses a layered architecture approach, which provides a high level of redundancy to help keep data “safe” and available once it enters Amalga Life Sciences. Receives data in multiple ways through an innovative, extensible parsing technology that can accept all data formats.
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| 2. Converge data. | Enhances the data as it is gathered, unifying it across all the information silos, and putting data elements in context with other data not previously visible. Provides transparency and traceability from the original data sources all the way to the usage scenario. Uses a “hybrid store” to bring together both relational and abstract data. The storage method promotes semantic querying and reasoning over a complex network of relationships and concepts, called the DataNet.
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| 3. Reveals relationships and allows inference. | Transforms disconnected data into networks of concepts. Uses a reasoning engine to infer novel relationships across networks of concepts. Presents concepts and ontological relationships visually using a “concept explorer.” Models and analyzes data built upon formal logic structures.
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| 4. Shares data and knowledge among different users, organizations, and applications. | Delivers data to the end user in a very simple user interface. Provides end users with self-service exploration—the ability to capture, view, and share data on their own, and with minimal training. Allows end users to easily create their own views.
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|  | | | | |  Amalga Life Sciences is built on three major tenets that extend value and support organizations’ fast-evolving R&D data management needs.
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The system is: |
| ComposableWith Amalga Life Sciences, multiple system components are concurrently orchestrated to perform a particular function without interfering with other functions. |
| ActiveBecause the system is always actively “polling” for new information and integrating data with existing knowledge, researchers are able to leverage new information that is constantly becoming available. |
| Open | Development application programming interfaces (APIs) allow access by third-party software, including open source components that users may choose to add to Amalga Life Sciences. |
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