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Stakeholder engagement and feedback efforts to increase use of the iCSS ToxCast Dashboard (SETAC)
Citation:
Baghdikian, C., T. Bahadori, R. Thomas, K. Crofton, AND M. Linnenbrink. Stakeholder engagement and feedback efforts to increase use of the iCSS ToxCast Dashboard (SETAC). Presented at Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, Salt Lake City, UT, November 01 - 05, 2015.
Impact/Purpose:
N/A
Description:
In the era of ‘Big Data’ research, many government agencies are engaged in generating and making public large amounts of data that underly both research and regulatory decisions. Public access increases the ‘democratization’ of science by enhancing transparency and access. However, in order to make the benefits of this access tangible and ubiquitous, training, translation, and facilitated engagement are necessary. The limited amount of publically accessible toxicity data on thousands of chemicals found in consumer products has led to the development of research endeavors such as the EPA’s Toxicity Forecaster (ToxCast). ToxCast uses high-throughput screening technology to evaluate thousands of chemicals for potential toxicity. At the end of 2013, U.S. EPA released ToxCast chemical data on almost 2,000 chemicals through the interactive Chemical Safety for Sustainability (iCSS) Dashboard. The iCSS Dashboard provides public access to data that can be used to inform the evaluation of the safety of chemicals. EPA recognized early in the development of ToxCast that stakeholder outreach and engagement was critical to ensure that complex scientific information and data in the iCSS Dashboard was relevant and usable by stakeholder communities. The goal of this effort was to educate the diverse user community through targeted efforts to increase data usage and analysis. Through surveys, one-on-one demos, and stakeholder meetings, user feedback was gathered and used to guide refinement of public access tools. It also led to development of tutorial videos that demonstrate how to access and use the data. The first video of the series has been released to guide dashboard usage. This feedback was also integrated throughout the development process of the new dashboard, released in the summer of 2015, from the integration of the understanding of use cases and functionality needs expressed from the original dashboard, through targeted user testing of the new tool. This presentation will describe the user feedback integration strategy, including an overview of: 1) stakeholder outreach goals and approach; 2) the process of two-way communication for feedback collection; 3) user testing and feedback integration: and 4) the impact of these outreach efforts. This stakeholder-outreach approach is an ongoing effort that has been critical to improved public access, understanding, and usability of the iCSS Dashboard and ToxCast data. This abstract does not necessarily reflect U.S. EPA policy.