Lessons from the Development of SSEUS: A System for Entry and Management of Peer-Reviewed Data

Abstract

Specialized information Services Edit Update System (SSEUS) is a peer-reviewed data entry management system that is used to maintain several databases at the National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health. SSEUS pairs a MySQL database server with an elaborate, open-source client written in an open-source very high level language. This paper presents lessons learned during the development, deployment, and maintenance of SSEUS over a ten year period. Compared with a proprietary system that it replaced, the use of open source technologies has reduced costs substantially, while improving the flexibility and maintainability of the databases.