UMMC Outstanding Research Support Staff

Fremel Backus

Intelligence Program Manager | Center for Informatics and Analytics

Years of service: 10

About Fremel: Fremel is an Intelligence Program Manager for the Center of Informatics and Analytics. He provides  program and project manager services for both the research and education missions. As part of his role, he oversees the many applications built by the CIA to assist UMMC researchers and administrators, including the Patient Cohort Explorer and the Research Participant Recruitment App. He also serves as the project manager for UMMC’s Velos eResearch project, which is a full-service clinical trials management system expected to go live mid-2020.

Why he loves research: “My wife is a researcher. I've spent many nights watching while she worked under a hood in a lab doing experiments. Now she's a clinical researcher. So, I have a front row seat to the hard work of the research mission. I love helping people. A core component of my job is customer service, and I take pride in that. I try to give people the same service I would want.”

From his peers: “Fremel is responsible for the development of the innovative Research Data Warehouse and its ongoing development. He has been highly responsive to our researchers at UMMC beyond the call of duty and works to improve his platform based on their feedback. He has been instrumental in training and helping people to use this resource, along with ensuring the system is upgraded based off user feedback.”