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DAILY NEWS AND INFORMATION FOR THE GLOBAL GRID COMMUNITY /
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Applications:
NEC DEPLOYS GRID SIMULATION SERVICES FOR CLINICAL USE
According to a recent announcement from NEC, a pilot Grid system will help to
run medical applications using high-performance computing.
NEC will provide middleware to link a user (a medical practitioner) to remote
computing systems. The user will then be able to run applications and
simulations remotely via a HPC platform. A secure internet link transfers the
data.
Doctors and other medical practitioners will be able to perform treatment
simulations with the new Grid-enabled Medical Simulation services (GEMSS)
project, one of Europe's first dedicated strictly for clinical use.
A group led by Thomas Hierl at the University Clinics Leipzig is monitoring
one of the applications that runs on the GEMSS test-bed. The solution is hoped
to provide solid and quick treatment planning for patients born with facial
structure problems, like cleft palates.
A large amount of computational power is required for such planning. Only
high-performance computing platforms can provide trustworthy computing
resources, according to researchers. Grid computing allows for these complex
applications to run in a matter of minutes.
Because facial malformations must be fixed by cutting and moving bones around
within the face, the effects of such manipulations must be predicted. The
maxillo-facial surgery simulation tool-set developed by NEC and MPI gives
surgeons a 3-D replica of the patient's face to work with. Using this model,
the surgeon can then use a high performance, physically correct FEM (finite
element) simulation to predict how bone structure and soft tissues will change
during treatment. The surgeon can then interpret the results from the
visualization and proceed with the new information.
NEC CCRLE, IT Innovation from the University of Southampton and ISS of the
University of Vienna run the processes and provide secure data transmission.
NEC also underwrites patient information security and simulation accuracy. In
addition, medical practitioners need not have special HPC or GEMSS knowledge
prior to use.
In addition to facial reconstruction applications, the GEMSS test-bed also
includes applications to simulate inhaled drug delivery, improved dose
calculation for radiotherapy, support for online-navigation in neuro-surgery,
improved-quality image processing, and a cardiovascular modeling system that
may be used to improve treatment for heart attacks. Each process requires
predictive modeling and the GEMSS team hopes to improve planning for these
simulations throughout the medical field.
In addition, fields such as bioinformatics, automotive and aeronautical
research, meteorology and climate modeling will also benefit from the
increased knowledge and use of high-performance computing.
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