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DAILY NEWS AND INFORMATION FOR THE GLOBAL GRID COMMUNITY /
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Applications:
HEALTH CARE COMPANY ADOPTS 3G STANDARDS FOR MAMMOGRAPHY ARCHIVE
i3ARCHIVE Inc, a provider of systems for managing digital mammography
information, will become the first company to adopt the new third-generation
(3G) standards for Grid Computing in a medical offering. i3ARCHIVE will
integrate the standards into its National Digital Mammography Archive (NDMA),
the largest archive of digital mammography images and patient data, setting
the stage for its growth nationwide.
The project, which will be completed in 2005, is being funded through a grant
from the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute.
i3ARCHIVE Chief Technical Officer Bob Hollebeek said, "We are deeply grateful
for this opportunity. Adopting these standards enhances the NDMA, making it
possible to connect it to other medical content. Systems of this type will be
the basis for secure digital patient record systems, making medical digital
information available with the same convenience as the Web."
The standards, which include Open Grid Services Architecture (OGSA) and Open
Grid Services Infrastructure (OGSI) make it possible for the NDMA to
seamlessly integrate with information from other medical databases. This
integration will make the data more accessible to a broader range of patients
through their health care institutions and provide benefits including better
diagnosis and care, record portability and better image quality.
The Grid has been hailed as the next-generation Internet, using groups of
computers to provide seamless, secure access to IT resources. Experts like
Charlie Catlett, chairman of the Global Grid Forum, believes that the time has
come for 3G, which enables systems to work together more easily and with less
customization than is currently possible.
In an article titled "Third Generation Grids," Catlett writes, "By introducing
standard technical specifications, 3G Grid technology will have the potential
to allow both competition and interoperability not only among applications and
toolkits, but among implementations of key services."
By making this transition to 3G, i3ARCHIVE is also helping to pioneer hospital
to hospital (h2h) computing, within Grid standards. A compliant NDMA helps
accelerate this process by providing health care institutions with easy access
to mammography images and patient information on behalf of patients.
"As the use of the 3G standard grows, the i3ARCHIVE-generated solution will
have more general applicability than just mammography," Hollebeek said, "and a
3G NDMA may serve as a model for future products in the health care arena."
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