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DAILY NEWS AND INFORMATION
FOR THE GLOBAL GRID COMMUNITY / JUNE 23, 2003: VOL. 2 NO. 25
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Applications:
GRID COMMUNITY PULLS TOGETHER TO
BATTLE SARS IN TAIWAN
Grid computing researchers around the Pacific Rim have mobilized to fight
the
SARS epidemic, helping establish a cutting-edge communication grid among
quarantined hospitals across Taiwan. In addition to linking the hospitals to
each other, the grid connects doctors to global sources of health
information.
On May 15, in search of expertise for setting up Access Grid sites,
Taiwan's
National Center for High-performance Computing sent a request to members of
the Pacific Rim Applications and Grid Middleware Assembly (PRAGMA). Led by the
San Diego Supercomputer Center at the University of California, San Diego,
offers of assistance poured in from all PRAGMA sites within hours, including
Argonne National Laboratory where the Access Grid was developed.
"National Science Foundation (NSF) support for the PRAGMA partnership has
led,
most importantly, to the development of strong human trust and a cooperative
spirit among the sites," said William Chang, NSF program manager in the Office
of International Science and Engineering. "PRAGMA shows that NSF's investment
in cyberinfrastructure will transform not only scientific research and
learning but also the handling of global episodic events such as SARS," he
added.
Because quarantine and isolation are the primary means of slowing the
spread
of SARS, Taiwan's hospitals faced a communication logjam. Physicians in
quarantined hospitals were unable to consult with specialists at other
institutions, and on a more personal level, hospital staff and patients had
limited contact with their families.
The Access Grid, a network-based collaboration environment, goes beyond
standard video- and teleconferencing and allows physicians to share detailed
X-ray images, patient data and other information in on-line meetings among
several sites. The Access Grid can also host private virtual rooms for
patients or hospital staff to visit with family members.
PRAGMA members gathered June 5-6 in Australia for the fourth PRAGMA meeting
to
discuss how they might expand the Taiwan experience and extend the SARS Grid
to other locations in the Pacific Rim.
"Thanks to PRAGMA, the alliance has been formed," said Fang-Pang Lin,
director
of the NCHC's grid computing division. "NCHC has a responsibility to assist in
handling this arduous task, and with assistance offered from the international
grid community," says Lin, "we believe that we can adequately contribute to
the nationwide call to assist in fighting the disease, relieving the epidemic,
and ultimately save many lives."
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