If you’ve conducted any research at WCM, you’ve likely run into Jessie Lee, Manager of Data & Software Engineering on our Research Informatics team. Jessie has been an invaluable fount of knowledge on data collection for almost two decades, helping researchers find solutions to tricky problems that come up in their studies. We sat down with Jessie to find out more about her career at WCM, and the impact she’s had on the research community.
Hi, Jessie! Thanks for meeting with me today. In your own words, what's your role here in ITS?
I am the manager of the Data & Software Engineering team in Research Informatics. My group handles transaction applications here at Weill Cornell, including all the systems that supports researchers to help them conduct their research, like REDCap, EMERSE, and the biobanking system, like OpenSpecimen.
How long have you been with ITS?
I joined Research Informatics last January, so I'm pretty new to ITS, although I've been with Weill Cornell for 17 years.
Yes, I’d heard that you've been here at Cornell for a long time and that you were a leading figure within the REDCap community. Could you tell me a little bit about that?
Sure! When I joined Weill Cornell 17 years ago, I joined the Clinical Translational Science Center. Back then, REDCap had just started to become a consortium project, and we were one of the first 10 members to join the REDCap Consortium. So, we brought that to Weill Cornell and I've been supporting REDCap since then.
For someone who’s not familiar with REDCap, what is it and how is it pivotal to the research community?
REDCap is a data management system that allows researchers to quickly set up a data collection database. Traditionally, before REDCap, unless you paid a lot of money for a data management system, you had to hire a programmer to build a database for you. REDCap takes care of that so all the researcher needs to do is build simple forms, spin up a database very quickly, and start doing data collection if they already planned out their research. It's a great tool in that has many different features to help manage data and quickly export data into a statistical analysis-ready format. Researchers can start doing data analysis without the need to perform additional programming to link up the data code values to the labels.
Did you always work in research before you joined Weill Cornell?
No, I only got into the research field after I joined Weill Cornell. I worked with a few academic institutions – I worked at Barnard, and then at Adelphi University. At the tail end of Dot-Com Boom, a couple of my friends started a company, so I went to join them. And since that was the tail end of the Dot-Com Boom, you know how that worked out!
After that, I left California and it brought me back to New York. I grew up in New York after I moved here from Taiwan. My parents are from China and they moved to Taiwan and then the US, so I've been in New York almost all my life, and I joined Weill Cornell after I came back.
What is your favorite part about your job?
I love working with researchers and finding solutions to help them do their research. With my years working with REDCap, they always come with a problem saying, “I would like to do X for this interesting problem, and I would like to use REDCap to do data collection in this way.” I find it really interesting and challenging to help them find solutions in REDCap.
Are there any examples of any projects or initiatives that you've worked on during your time at Weill Cornell that you've been I particularly proud of?
There was a project where a researcher came in wanting to use REDCap as a kiosk, so their research patients can come in and use the kiosk to check-in for an MRI, then a technician would perform the scan. But the same patient could come in multiple times, so you needed to connect all the visit data for this patient together somehow.
We had to use REDCap behind the scenes to connect the data for patient with multiple scans together with the same patient id. The technician uses this patient’s id on the scan so the radiologist wouldn’t know who they were. So, what this did is if the radiologist reviewing the MRI result finds something serious, the researcher can “break the glass” by the ID and find out who the patient is and work with them, but otherwise the process was completely anonymous.
What keeps you inspired and motivated overall in your work?
I love working with people, so I think that motivates me to work with all the researchers and their different needs. What they want to do fascinates me, so finding solutions to help them is always a great reward.
Aside from everything you do at Cornell, what do you like to do outside of work?
Oh, I have a lot of interests! I used to run a lot of marathons, but a couple years ago I injured my ankle, so I stopped doing that. Last year, I started doing paddle boarding to try and see how that works out. I used to travel everywhere in the country to just run races. Anyone who knows me knows I run for blings! If you dangle a medal in front of me, I’m there!
That's awesome! How many medals do you think you have?
So many! I have probably close to – I don't know – close to 100… or maybe over 100 now. I used to run everything. I ran with the New York Road Runners and every weekend I ran all their races for the longest time. I also run a lot of Disney races; they have those coast-to-coast runs, so I used to fly out to California to run Disneyland and fly back. But, my ankle’s not allowing me to do it anymore.
Jessie (right) and a friend showing off their many running medals!
Yeah, you don't want to exacerbate that injury! But are you liking paddle boarding? Do you think it could be like a good substitute?
Yeah, so far it's been working out great. I have a couple friends and we just go out when there is warner weather. There are some nice lakes around here. I'm not good enough to do it in a faster current!
Jessie trying out her new hobby, paddleboarding.
Who is a woman that you admire and why?
I would say my grandmother. She basically lived during a pretty tumultuous time in history and she helped the family be together during this. She is a Buddhist and so I think she has a great influence on me, on the Buddhist philosophy, how I look at life, and how I treat others.
I remember when I was little, she had a really big heart. She read about people who needed help in the newspaper and she'd try to help them out with what she can, whatever she had… she would try to help them out. I always saw her calling my aunt and saying, “Oh, I see these people need help!” That always sits with me and I remember that's how I would like to be, just like her.