Understand the role information systems can play in clinical and translational research, drawing upon the experience of the Biomedical Informatics Core of the CTSA-funded Institute of Translational Health Sciences (www.iths.org). The University of Washington’s Dr. Peter Tarczy-Hornoch, Professor of Medical Education and Biomedical Informatics, also discusses current tools for accessing electronic medical record data subject to HIPAA and Human Subjects regulations. Also look at the range of tools for prospective electronic data capture for clinical trials, and future potential developments for institutional biorepositories. From the Series:Laboratory Medicine Grand Rounds