Poster Presentation Biobanking - Blue Sky Horizons (ABNA 19th Annual Conference)

Costs and publication outputs of an academic cancer biobank cohort (#5)

Amanda Rush 1 2 3 , Daniel R Catchpoole 4 5 , Rod Ling 6 7 , Andrew Searles 6 7 , Peter H Watson 8 , Jennifer A Byrne 2 9
  1. Menzies Centre for Health Policy and Economics, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW, Australia
  2. NSW Health Statewide Biobank, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW, Australia
  3. Children's Cancer Research Unit, Kids Research, Westmead, NSW, Australia
  4. Biomedical Research Data Laboratory, Faculty of Engineering and IT, University of Technology, Sydney, NSW, Australia
  5. Biospecimens Research Services, CCRU, Kids Research, Westmead, NSW, Australia
  6. Health Research Economics, Hunter Medical Research Institute, New Lambton, NSW, Australia
  7. School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Newcastle, New Lambton, NSW, Australia
  8. Biobanking and Biospecimen Research Services, BC Canada, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
  9. Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW, Australia

Sustainability for biobanks represents an ongoing economic challenge, with numerous closures of high profile facilities1,2,3. We have previously discussed the lack of focus on valuing biobanks and their associated outputs, and the threats to sustainability that this may confer4. To better understand the biobank costs and outputs that contribute to biobank value, we performed an in-depth analysis of annual monetary and in-kind support, and supported publications and their metrics, for a cohort of 12 academic cancer biobanks in New South Wales.

Through a combination of interviews and desktop analysis, comprehensive costing and supported publication data were obtained. Biobanks were grouped and compared according to two classifications: open- versus restricted- access5, and high- versus low- total annual costs.

Median total costs, as well as median staffing and in-kind costs, were comparable for open- and restricted- access biobanks, as were the quantity and journal impact metrics of supported publications. High- and low-cost biobanks supported similar median numbers of publications, however, high-cost biobanks supported publications with higher median Journal Impact Factor and Altmetric scores. Overall, 9 of 10 biobanks had higher Field Weighted Citation Impact scores than the global average for similar publications.

To our knowledge, this is the first analysis of the costs and supported publications of any academic biobank cohort. Through assessing explicit cost and output data, academic biobanks can engage in or support informed re-direction of resourcing and/or benchmark setting, particularly in light of the range of available collection and access models. Funders and policymakers can also benefit through greater accountability for decision making enabled by evidence-supported business models of biobank operations.

Acknowledgement: We would like to thank the staff of the participating biobanks for their time and efforts in sharing biobank costings and outputs for this project.    

 

  1. Ontario Institute for Cancer Research. Ontario Tumour Bank to Cease Operations in 2022-23. April 8, 2021 At: https://oicr.on.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/otb-closure.pdf Accessed 28/7/22
  2. Wai CT. The closure of the National Bio-bank in Singapore. At: https://www.academia.edu/2357156/The_Closure_of_the_National_Bio_bank_in_Singapore Accessed 28/7/22
  3. Larsson A, Savage C, Brommels M and Mattsson P. Structuring a research infrastructure: A study of the rise and fall of a large-scale distributed biobank facility. Social Science Information 2018; 57(2): 196 – 222
  4. Rush A, Catchpoole DR, Ling R, Searles A, Watson PH and Byrne JA. Improving biobank sustainability through an outputs focus. Value in Health. 2020; 23(8): 1072 - 1078
  5. Rush A, Christiansen JH, Farrell JP, Goode SM, Scott RJ, Spring K and Byrne JA. Biobank classification in an Australian setting. Biopreservation and Biobanking. 2015; 13(3): 212 - 218