About

What is ITSS?

ITSS (Information Technology Shared Services) is a technology delivery model created to as a centralized method of distributing service and support. This dedicated unit is part of UC San Diego Health Information Services, which includes but is not limited to:

1. People
2. Processes
3. Technology

UC San Diego Health Information Services (IS) is dedicated to leveraging technology to effectively and securely support our three missions, including the delivery of quality healthcare, outstanding medical education, and advancement of innovative research at UC San Diego School of Medicine and Skaggs School of Pharmacy.

Why ITSS?

ITSS exists because the previous School of Medicine IT support model was fragmented. There were no unifying services causing additional and unnecessary costs, cyber security events, lack of common user experience and often no IT support at all. This caused disparity among many groups across the School of Medicine enterprise.

How Does ITSS Benefit Me?

 ITSS enables School of Medicine to work collaboratively, efficiently and provides the necessary tools to be impactful and effective in each role. We offer the necessary technology to remain on the cutting edge of security, cloud, desktop and server engineering. This promotes cohesion and protects our organization from unwanted guests.

How Do I Budget ITSS in Contracts and Grants?

This charge is for services to ensure a higher level of security protection for Health Sciences personnel, who are integrated in an environment rich with HIPPA data.

Following are guidelines regarding the application of the HS Technology Service Charge to contracts and grants: 

• $114.33 per month per projected full-time employee (FTE) or fractional proportion based on FTE effort
• Expect a 3% growth rate annually in perpetuity to the HS-TSC charges
  • Please note that on March 29, 2022, our Executive Body came to the conclusion that certain IT investments had to be made to protect our Organization from malicious attackers. As such, it has been decided that an increase of 7% for the next 5 years is necessary. Therefore, please make note of the following HS-TSC fees and plan accordingly:
    • Fiscal 2023 --> $122.33
    • Fiscal 2024 --> $130.89
    • Fiscal 2025 --> $140.06
    • Fiscal 2026 --> $149.86
    • Fiscal 2027 --> $160.35
  • Please note that our Executive Body has approved a 5% increase for Fiscal 2023 (starts July 1, 2022). As such, the new budgeted fee that should be accounted for is $120.05. Please feel free to reach out should you have any questions. 
  • As of July 1, 2022, the per month fee that you should budget for is $117.76 per projected full-time employee (FTE)
• Applies to contracts and grants for researchers operating within the Health Sciences domain and receiving full-service support from UC San Diego Health Information Services.     
• Applies to contract and grant budgets for all sponsors 
• Include on proposal budgets effective July 1, 2021
• Applies to contract and grant awards effective July 1, 2021
• Will not apply to awards from sponsors that do not allow these types of costs as direct charge without advance notification and approval. If a sponsor does not approve, it will be necessary to allocate this charge to other discretionary funds as approved by the Department Chair.
• Awards where funding is not adequate to cover these charges will be given consideration of a waiver from the Department Chair for these fees, on an award-by-award basis. 
• Does not apply to General Campus or Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) researchers. For General Campus or SIO researchers collaborating with Health Sciences researchers on projects, the fee will only be assessed for Health Sciences affiliated personnel and will not be assessed on the salaries of non-Health Sciences personnel.

A line item for this charge should be included in proposal budgets and a detailed explanation should be included in the budget justification. For example: 

BUDGET LINE ITEM: HS-TSC (Health Sciences Technology Services Charge) $$$$

BUDGET JUSTIFICATION:

UC San Diego Health Information Services costs have been included to reflect costs associated with the increased level of security required for all personnel within UC San Diego Health, which includes UC San Diego School of Medicine, Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, and the hospitals and clinics. These charges are directly attributable and proportionally applied for the individual(s) included in the proposed budget on the project.   

TO BE USED IN THE DETAILED BUDGET JUSTIFICATION:

UC San Diego Health Information Services (IS) provides mandatory Information Technology Services to all of Health Sciences faculty and investigators, to include costs associated with the increased level of security required for all personnel within UC San Diego Health, which includes UC San Diego School of Medicine, Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and the hospitals and clinics. To mitigate the specific risk profile of this highly connected environment, UC San Diego Health Information Services ensures that all PIs who IS provides services to, whether they directly access patient information or not, operate in a highly secure desktop, application and server environment with dedicated and highly trained support. Charges are based on percent of FTE working on a grant and are charged on a monthly basis.

These costs are not included in the campus' Facilities & Administration (F&A) rate as an indirect cost. UC San Diego auditors have determined that it is both equitable and consistent with the OMB Circular 2 CFR 200 provisions on cost allocability that the costs be assigned to FTE on grant and contract funds. Accordingly, an allocable portion of these Technology Services costs is included in this proposal as direct project costs.

For questions about the Health Sciences Technology Services Charge, please contact Miguel Villalobos.

The information found above relating to the HS-TSC charge can also be located on Blink  & Pulse.