HealthGrids: In Search for Sustainable Solutions

Transcription

1 HealthGrids: In Search for Sustainable Solutions Karl A. Stroetmann MBA PhD FRSM with Alexander Dobrev, Dainis Zegners empirica Communication & Technology Research, Bonn, Germany 1

2 Contents Definition & Types of HealthGrids HealthGrid Projects - Examples Infrastructure Services Examples & Needs Towards Sustainable Solutions Conclusions & Outlook 2

3 Definition & Types of HealthGrids 3

4 Definition A HealthGrid is an environment, created through the sharing of resources, in which heterogeneous and dispersed health data as well as applications can be accessed by all users as a tailored information providing system according to their authorisation. Source: Presentation by Ilias Iakovidis, Deputy Head of Unit ICT for Health at the Workshop on Biomedical Informatics, Brussels 18 March

5 Types of HealthGrids Source: Presentation by Ilias Iakovidis, Deputy Head of Unit ICT for Health at the Workshop on Biomedical Informatics, Brussels 18 March

6 In Practice Most applications are using Grids as a resource - for computing, or as a network for data sharing No Knowledge Grid operational yet ACGT (Advancing Clinico- Genomic Clinical Trials on Cancer) project aims to build a knowledge grid by 2010 HealthGrids are a relatively new phenomenon: Most projects started between 2002 and

7 HealthGrid Projects - Examples 7

8 WISDOM Wide In Silico Docking On Malaria Initiative for using computing grids for drug discovery (search of 100s of thousands chemical compounds for docking at malaria-causing protozoan parasites) No business intentions at the start in 2005 Initial success triggered a second initiative and may pave the way towards sustainability Plans are entertained to commercialise a service based on HealthGrids 8

9 Mammogrid Image processing for breast cancer Connecting hospitals in a virtual organisation Sharing databases of mammography and images Computer-aided detection (CADe) algorithms Epidemiological research FP 5 project Market entry is planned for

10 Infrastructure Services Examples & Needs 10

11 egee egee (enabling Grids for E-sciencE) Flagship Grid infrastructure project of the EU 250 sites across 50 countries More than 68,000 CPU available Supports applications from many scientific domains (e.g. astrophysics, biomedicine, finance) 11

12 Middleware Software for supporting and maintaining a grid infrastructure Enables software processes to be distributed on multiple machines connected over a network AliEn (Alice Environment) open source developed by CERN glite open source developed by egee 12

13 Technical (generic) Standards OGSA (Open Grid Services Architecture) OGSI (Open Grid Services Infrastructure) Semantic (Health Terminology) SNOMED CT (Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine - Clinical Terms ) Imaging (Health) DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine): industry standard for exchanging digital images and image-related data 13

14 Towards Sustainable Solutions 14

15 Status Quo Most Health Grids are publicly funded Financial sustainability is not a driving force Number of Cas ses Public funding EC (EU 5FP/6FP/7FP) Private funding Other sources no details found Source of financing n = 22; Source: empirica 2007, study for TMV e.v., Berlin, Germany 15

16 Status Quo Project based activities: time limits on funding, goals & objectives Activities are mainly playgrounds for scientists and technicians Obstacles: Lack of incentives to focus on sustainability Needs of private sector not addressed Legal uncertainties & security/data protection issues (Semantic) standards for data and knowledge sharing Trust by professionals/clinicians 16

17 Towards a Business Case Potential users: Medical researchers Treating physicians/health services organisations Target customers: Public sector Private sector Specific needs: Data security Intellectual property rights Payment schemes (flexible vs. fixed pricing) 17

18 Competition Supercomputers (IBM, HP, Fjuitsu,...) Commercial computational grids (HP, SUN,...) Cloud-computing (Amazon, IBM, Google, Microsoft, EMC/VMare,...) Provision of computing over the Internet Will grow fast (20-40% p.a.), while traditional hardware will stagnate Future Hybrid Services with a combination of internet and private network services Security and outages are a concern SaaS (Software as a Service) (Salesforce,...) 18

19 Unique Selling Point Tailor-made solutions for healthcare More than pure technological component Unique mix of resources and expertise Exploitation of network effects: Data People Knowledge Health data warehouses are developing globally BUT: standardisation, particularly semantic interoperability, will be indispensable 19

20 Data Protection Legal Uncertainties Cross-border data flows Multiple controllers Medical and non-medical actors Liability for Goods and Services Use of automated decision support in health service provision Intellectual Property Rights HealthGrid operating systems Collections of medical data 20

21 Conclusion & Outlook 21

22 Conclusions HealthGrids are a new phenomenon Most HealthGrids are project based and publicly founded Financial sustainability is not a driving force Identification of target customers and their needs (business model, investment/impact assessment) missing Legal uncertainties and security challenges have to be resolved Standardisation is a key challenge Unique Selling Point : Mix of technology with people and knowledge Will Grids, SaaS and Cloud Computing merge? 22

23 Outlook The ultimate vision is to link: Consumers Providers Public health responsibilities Community health information exchange, Federal & regional healthcare in a seamless public-private HealthGrid Or would this be a data security nightmare? 23

24 Ultimate Goal: Total Health Grid Source: R. Ursone, BearingPoint Inc., presentation at HealthGrid Conference 2008, June 2-4, Chicago IL, USA 24

25 Acknowledgements TMF, Berlin, Germany EU Share Project TMF e.v., Berlin, Germany: Investigation of HealthGrid projects across the European Union and in the USA regarding business models and sustainability,

26 Thank you for your attention! Further information: empirica Communication & Technology Research Oxfordstr. 2, Bonn, Germany Tel: +49 (0) Fax: +49 (0)