Ten simple rules for providing bioinformatics support within a hospital

Bioinformatics has become a key aspect of the biomedical research programmes of many hospitals' scientific centres, and the establishment of bioinformatics facilities within hospitals has become a common practice worldwide. Bioinformaticians working in these facilities provide computational biology support to medical doctors and principal investigators who are daily dealing with data of patients to analyze. These bioinformatics analysts, although pivotal, usually do not receive formal training for this job. We therefore propose these ten simple rules to guide these bioinformaticians in their work: ten pieces of advice on how to provide bioinformatics support to medical doctors in hospitals. We believe these simple rules can help bioinformatics facility analysts in producing better scientific results and work in a serene and fruitful environment.

Automated summary

Bioinformatics has become an integral part of biomedical research in hospitals worldwide, with the establishment of bioinformatics facilities being a common practice. However, bioinformaticians working in these facilities often lack formal training for their job. To address this, we propose ten simple rules to guide bioinformaticians in providing support to medical doctors, aiming to improve scientific results and foster a productive work environment.