Automating Document Production Tasks to Streamline the Development of Chemical Assessments
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Background and Purpose:
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) conducts many chemical assessments in which the resulting toxicity values can be used for regulatory applications. Some examples of chemical assessment programs include Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) and Provisional Peer-Reviewed Toxicity Values (PPRTVs). To develop chemical assessments, scientists use systematic review methods to identify and evaluate evidence used to support derivation of toxicity values. A collection of tools is used for systematic review steps (e.g., literature searching, literature screening, and study evaluation/risk of bias), and all work and results are summarized and managed in a shared Microsoft Word document. Directly integrated into these large documents are references from our internal reference management software called Health and Environmental Research Online (HERO). Many challenges exist when managing large, shared documents that are also integrated with HERO. Challenges include file corruptions, out-of-sync changes, incorrectly formatted citations, and incorrectly formatted graphics that can lead to slow or inconsistent ability to access a document. Managing these files and troubleshooting technical problems often requires significant resources. The goal of this project was to develop tools to identify and solve common problems that arise while working with large documents to decrease the total amount of time needed to process these documents. The suite of tools is collectively called the Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment (CPHEA) Document Processing application.