Development of grid frameworks for clinical trials and epidemiological studies

Sinnott, R.O., Stell, A.J. and Ajayi, O. (2006) Development of grid frameworks for clinical trials and epidemiological studies. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, 120, pp. 117-130.

Abstract

E-Health initiatives such as electronic clinical trials and epidemiological studies require access to and usage of a range of both clinical and other data sets. Such data sets are typically only available over many heterogeneous domains where a plethora of often legacy based or in-house/bespoke IT solutions exist. Considerable efforts and investments are being made across the UK to upgrade the IT infrastructures across the National Health Service (NHS) such as the National Program for IT in the NHS (NPFIT) [1]. However, it is the case that currently independent and largely non-interoperable IT solutions exist across hospitals, trusts, disease registries and GP practices – this includes security as well as more general compute and data infrastructures. Grid technology allows issues of distribution and heterogeneity to be overcome, however the clinical trials domain places special demands on security and data which hitherto the Grid community have not satisfactorily addressed. These challenges are often common across many studies and trials hence the development of a re-usable framework for creation and subsequent management of such infrastructures is highly desirable. In this paper we present the challenges in developing such a framework and outline initial scenarios and prototypes developed within the MRC funded Virtual Organisations for Trials and Epidemiological Studies (VOTES) project [2].

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Stell, Mr Anthony and Sinnott, Professor Richard
• Authors: Sinnott, R.O., Stell, A.J., and Ajayi, O.
• Subjects: Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA75 Electronic computers. Computer science
• College/School: University Services > IT Services > Computing Service
• Journal Name: Studies in Health Technology and Informatics
• Publisher: IOS Press
• ISSN: 0926-9630
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2006 IOS Press
• First Published: First published in Studies in Health Technology and Informatics 120:117-130
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher.