[CAnet - news] Real world cyber-infarstructure for medical and health applications

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[Here are 2 great examples of using Globus, web services and BPEL workflow
for medical and health applications. Thanks to Ian Foster for these
pointers. Some excerpts from his blog - BSA]

http://ianfoster.typepad.com/blog/2006/10/grid_fighting_c.html

The National Institutes of Health Cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid (caBIG)
is one of the most exciting Grid deployments out there. There's a nice NIH
Web site with background information. Quoting that site:

    The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has launched the caBIGT (cancer
Biomedical Informatics GridT) initiative to speed research discoveries and
improve patient outcomes by linking researchers, physicians, and patients
throughout the cancer community. caBIGT is a voluntary network of
infrastructure, tools, and ideas that enables the collection, analysis, and
sharing of data and knowledge along the entire research pathway from
laboratory bench to patient bedside.

I like caBIG for two reasons. The first is my family history of cancer )-:.
The second is that they are one of the most ambitious and successful users
of Globus software that I know. There are more an 800 people working on 70
projects within caBIG, and every caBIG Web Service is built on Globus
technology. The caBIG software distribution uses just about every Globus
component. In addition, caBIG has developed some nice new functionality to
Globus, including:

    * The very nice Introduce interactive development environment (IDE)
developed at Ohio State University. (We expect this to be contributed to
dev.globus in the near future.)
    * Integration of BPEL and GT4, allowing dynamic creation and management
of BPEL workflows, and coordination of GT4 services from BPEL. This work has
resulted in contributions back to ActiveBPEL, and should feed into Globus
execution management.
    * Integration of the Handle system and GT4 security for secure name
resolution. This is already a dev.globus incubator.

I'm as much a fan of the search for the Higg's Boson as anyone, but there is
something to be said about finding a cure for cancer!


http://ianfoster.typepad.com/blog/2006/10/medicus_globusp.html



MEDICUS: Globus-powered medical imaging and computing

A really nice Globus-based application: MEDICUS (Medical Imaging and
Computing for Unified Information Sharing). This software federates medical
imaging and computing resources for clinical and research applications.
Quoting the authors:

    The objectives of the MEDICUS project are to promote transparent and
non-proprietary solutions for medical image processing, and medical image
and data sharing between heath care providers, physicians, and researchers
in the life sciences. The Globus Toolkit provides the necessary architecture
platform and standards to engage in this diverse and difficult field. As
such it provides a vendor independent solution to efficiently communicate
medical images and image outcome at various levels in the healthcare
enterprise.
 
Why I like it:

   1. It's the real deal--it already provides access to hundreds of
thousands of images at some 40 sites across the U.S., including 27 from the
Children's Oncology Group, allowing users to publish, search for, access,
and process images in powerful ways.
   2. It is a lovely example of how Globus services (security, data,
computing, etc.) can be used to develop secure, robust, and efficient
distributed systems quickly and easily. (For details, see this slide set or
the various papers on the MEDICUS web site.)
   3. It's been set up as an incubator on dev.globus, facilitating community
access and contributions.

The responsible parties include Stephan Erberich, Ann Chervenak, Carl
Kesselman, Manasee Bhandekar, and Marvin Nelson.

>From the incubator web page, a list of features:

    * Vendor independent Grid Enterprise PACS (Picture Archiving and
Communication System) deployment by vertically integrating Globus Toolkit
Data services
    * DICOM legacy support to connect medical image modalities (MR, CT,
X-Ray, etc.) to data Grids
    * Open-source image archiving and distributed warehousing for
large-scale multi-center clinical trials
    * Medical image guided drug discovery in combination with remote
processing (GRAM service)
    * Flexible fault-tolerant off-site DICOM Grid image storage for man-made
or natural disaster recovery
    * Cost-efficient tele-radiology and image workflow between community
care facilities and remote specialist using the Grid 

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These news items and comments are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect
those  of the CANARIE board or management.

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