Speaker
Describe the scientific/technical community and the scientific/technical activity using (planning to use) the EGEE infrastructure. A high-level description is needed (neither a detailed specialist report nor a list of references).
One of the greatest opportunity offered by EGEE Grid infrastructure is the
possibility to exchange information between different users and organizations easily
and securely. This cooperation is very similar to the one used in medical practice to
exchange patient information between specialists. In this context the cooperation
between physicians is a key factor to bring expert second opinion in isolated places
such as Burchina Faso.
Report on the experience (or the proposed activity). It would be very important to mention key services which are essential for the success of your activity on the EGEE infrastructure.
The MIP application has been developed using Web Service technology to create an
interface between end users and the EGEE Grid Infrastructure. This project
organization has been adopted to keep the medical platform as easy to use as possible
and to give users the possibility to access the medical information stored across the
Grid in a secure way from any machine with internet access and password based
authentication. This organization reduces the impact of the "Grid World" complexity
on physicians. To develop MIP several grid services will be used. In fact, on one
side we will use AMGA service to store all the medical metadata (i.e. patient info,
exam details, etc.), to manage users authentication and to define different access
permissions based on user role and information category. On the other side the
application will be able to store the anonymized (and also encrypted) medical images
in different SE using gLite data management capabilities.
With a forward look to future evolution, discuss the issues you have encountered (or that you expect) in using the EGEE infrastructure. Wherever possible, point out the experience limitations (both in terms of existing services or missing functionality)
During design and first steps of development of MIP infrastructure we haven't
encontered particoulr problems on metadata management. In fact, the AMGA
implementation of metadata catalog is stable and provides all needed features and
flexibility to be adapted to our purpose. On the other hand the data management of
gLite middleware still lacks in support and flexibility for what concern data
management of encrypted data.
Describe the added value of the Grid for the scientific/technical activity you (plan to) do on the Grid. This should include the scale of the activity and of the potential user community and the relevance for other scientific or business applications
Our application has been developed to make the medical information exchange through
the EGEE Grid possible using gLite services. All the medical information is
characterized by the need to manage them keeping in mind the patient privacy. The
EGEE Grid Services and the Web Service technology, provide all needed tools to
develope a medical platform (MIP) to store and manage medical data guaranteeing the
needed security levels both in terms of user authentication (and authorization) and
data encryption (both during information transfer and storage). The spotted user
target is composed by physicians and medical staff. The MIP infrastructure needs to
be able to give them all the services described above without modifing their "modus
operandi" inside their medical environment. The development and deployement of MIP
services in more medical infrastructures creates a network for knowledge and
information sharing across the Grid.
