SIIM: Dynamic service deployment can improve data privacy

The use of grid technologies and dynamic service deployment may alleviate concerns of data privacy that arise in multi-institutional collaborations, according to study results presented this morning at the 2009 Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine (SIIM) conference in Charlotte, N.C.

Ashish Sharma, PhD, from Emory University in Atlanta, and colleagues sought to develop and evaluate the utility of an alternate approach to transferring patient data between facilities by deploying computer-aided detection (CAD) algorithms to these facilities.

"Privacy has always been a concern when grid services are used in research, especially when data is transferred beyond the firewall of a research or clinical facility," the authors noted. "Our solution offers the potential to alleviate this problem."

The researchers deployed a pilot system consisting of a CAD grid service and an image data service running at a different site. Radiologists were able to issue requests for the algorithm to be deployed and executed at the site of the image service. After successful execution, the results were sent back to the radiologist and the algorithm was undeployed. The time required to download, utilize and delete the algorithm was relatively short and did not adversely affect image interpretation workflow, according to Sharma and colleagues.

Moving an algorithm to the site where the data to be processed is located can reduce data security and integrity concerns since the data never leaves the hosting institution. The approach also reduces the overall execution time, as the time to transfer an algorithm is typically less than that of transferring data. Additionally, this approach offers the potential for a business model in which a workstation could have access to multiple proprietary or commercial algorithms, as well as freely available algorithms, as long as they share a common framework, the researchers noted.

"This approach also offers some intriguing possibilities for a business model within a single vendor or even using the software provided by multiple vendors on a workstation or using an internet ‘portal' approach," according to Sharma and colleagues.

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