- DESCRIPTION:
The EC-funded BIOINFOMED Study (EC-IST 2001-35024) has recently carried out a prospective analysis of the relationships and synergy between Bioinformatics (Bl) and Medical Informatics (Ml).There is a great potential for synergy between both disciplines with a view on continuity and individualisation of healthcare, so that the benefits of the human genome elucidation can reach the population, but that a collaborative effort between the two disciplines is needed to bridge the current gap between them. Biomedical Informatics (BMI) is the emerging discipline that aims to put these two worlds together so that the discovery and creation of novel diagnostic and therapeutic methods is fostered. The INFOBIOMED network aims to set a durable structure for the described collaborative approach at a European level, mobilising the critical mass of resources necessary for enabling the collaborative approach that supports the consolidation of BMI as a crucial scientific discipline for future healthcare. The specific objectives of INFOBIOMED are:- To enable systematic progress in clinical and genetic data interoperability and integration
- To advance the exchange and interfacing of methods, tools and technologies used in both Mland Bl
- To enable pilot applications in particular fields that demonstrate the benefits of a synergetic approach in BMI
- To create a European BMI community that extends beyond the proposed core network to serveas an open forum for dialogue between the actors involved
- To widely spread the knowledge acquired and developed in the framework of the network to the scientific community, healthcare professionals, citizens, industry, authorities and other stakeholders
- To enable a robust framework for education in BMI, as well as training and mobility of involved researchers that allows for the creation of a solid European BMI research capacity
- To create a long-lasting, self-sustainable structure in the European BMI field.
- DURATION:
01/01/2004-31/12/2006
- PARTICIPANTS:
Institut municipal D' Assistencia Sanitaria, Karolinska Institute, University of Endiburgh Custodics,spaRCIM-Spain*, FYNEN, Informa S.R.L. ,FORTH-Greece*
- DESCRIPTION:
Bioinformatics and medical informatics are both rapidly advancing fields. Advances in molecular biology, the home of bioinformatics, demand that it reach out to the biology of cells, tissues, organs, organisms and populations. Within medicine, increasing understanding of the molecular basis of disease, and the effect of genotype on disease propensity and treatment efficacy, create a convergence between the disciplines. This project is an information gathering and dissemination activity which will stimulate these developments and exploit the synergy between bio- and medical informatics. A collaboration between national and international policy-making organisations will document the state-of-the-art in biomedical informatics and identify areas of maximum opportunity. This will be done by systematically identifying European experts (using the so-called "snowball" methodology) and collecting their insights. Initially this will be done through an open-ended consultation whose output will be used to create an internet survey from which results will be summarised and presented. Simultaneously, bibliometric and data-mining methods will identify and analyse the content of the relevant scientific literature. Areas of opportunity will be extracted from the resulting information, and meetings of the partners and experts will carefully prioritise these. A report summarising the findings will provide well-judged input to future European scientific and funding policy. A concluding meeting will present these findings for discussion by a wider community of bio- and medical informaticians.
- DURATION: 01/05/2005-30/04/2007
- PARTICIPANTS:
The European Bioinformatics Institute scientific Generics Ltd, The Ministry of Education and Science-Spain, University of Genoa-Dist-Department of Communication Computer and System Sciences, The Institute of Biomedical Technologies (ITB)-Italy, Estonian Genome Project Foundation (EGPF), Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale (INSERM),CNR-Italy*,FORTH-Greece*
- DESCRIPTION:
The completion of the Human Genome Project sparked the development of many new tools for today’s biomedical researcher to use in finding the mechanism behind disease. While the goal is clear, the path to such discoveries has been fraught with roadblocks in terms of technical, scientific, and sociological challenges. ACGT brings together internationally recognised leaders in their respective fields, with the aim to deliver to the cancer research community an integrated Clinico-Genomic ICT environment enabled by a powerful GRID infrastructure. In achieving this objective ACGT has formulated a coherent, integrated workplan for the design, development, integration and validation of all technologically challenging areas of work. Namely:- GRID: delivery of a European Biomedical GRID infrastructure offering seamless mediation services for sharing data and data-processing methods and tools, and advanced security
- Integration: semantic, ontology based integration of clinical and genomic/proteomic data - taking into account standard clinical and genomic ontologies and metadata
- Knowledge Discovery: Delivery of data-mining GRID services in order to support and improve complex knowledge discovery processes.
The technological platform will be validated in concrete setting of advanced clinical trials on Cancer. Pilot trials have been selected based on the presence of clear research objectives, raising the need to integrate data at all levels of the human being. ACGT promotes the principle of open source and open access, thus enabling the gradual creation of a European Biomedical Grid on Cancer. Hence, the project plans to introduce additional clinical trials during its lifecycle. It is in line with EU priorities and the objectives of the IST program. It targets the fulfilment of urgent needs of the cancer research community, a key area of societal importance and with a view to strengthening the integration of the European Research Area.
- DURATION: 01/02/2006-31/01/2010
- PARTICIPANTS:
FORTH-Greece*, INRIA-France*, UvA-The Netherlands, PHILIPS-The Netherlands, IJB-Belgium, SIB-Switzerland, LundU-Sweeden, UMA-Spain, spaRCIM-Spain*, FHG-Germany*, BIOVISTA-Greece*, UOC-Greece, UHANN-Germany, PSNC-Poland, CUSTODIX-Belgium, HEALTHGRID-France, ICCS-Greece, USAAR-Germany, SIVECO-Romania, FUNDP-Belgium, UH-Germany, UOXF-Great Britain, Uhok-Japan, IEO-Italy
- DESCRIPTION:
The human plasma proteome holds the promise of a revolution in disease diagnosis and therapy. One major breakthrough should come from the detection of multiprotein disease markers including isoforms. We propose to integrate a full proteomics analysis chain, from blood sample to the diagnosis information, combining bio-, nano, and information-related technologies. It includes an innovative patented lab-on-chip developed at CEA. The clinical application is early pancreatic cancer diagnosis.
The project is based on a panel of three identified proteins, a protein isolation protocol, an optimised chromatographic-electrospray lab-on-chip, an Integrated Clinico-Proteomics Environment including a Proteomic Information Management System, a Clinical Information System, and modules for preprocessing, reconstruction, visualisation, protein identification, data mining and knowledge discovery. The clinical validation is applied to a cohort of 92 patients. Our targeted performances are to get at least the sensitivity of an orthogonal ELISA approach, to operate the analysis chain in less than 12 hours, and to demonstrate the interest of multiprotein marker.
The main research outcomes will be an optimised chromatographic-electrospray lab-on-chip, a software environment supporting the integrated device, a proof-of-concept of their application to protein profiling for cancer diagnosis and an exploitation plan.
- DESCRIPTION:
HEARTFAID is a R&D project aimed at devising, developing and validating an innovative knowledge based platform of services, able to improve early diagnosis and to make more effective the medical-clinical management of heart diseases within elderly population. Chronic Heart Failure is one of the most remarkable health problems for prevalence and morbidity, especially in the developed western countries, with a strong impact in terms of social and economic effects. All these aspects are typically emphasized within the elderly population, with very frequent hospital admissions and a significant increase of medical costs. Recent studies and experiences have demonstrated that accurate heart failure management programs, based on a suitable integration of inpatient and outpatient clinical procedures, might prevent and reduce hospital admissions, improving clinical status and reducing costs.
HEARTFAID aims at defining efficient and effective health care delivery organization and management models for the “optimal” management of the care in the field of cardiovascular diseases. The HEARTFAID innovative computerized system will improve the processes of diagnosis, prognosis and therapy provision, providing the following services:- electronic health record for easy and ubiquitous access to heterogeneous patients data
- integrated services for healthcare professionals, including patient telemonitoring, signal and image processing, alert and alarm system
- clinical decision support in the heart failure domain, based on pattern recognition in historical data, knowledge discovery analysis and inferences on patients’ clinical data.
- DURATION: 01/02/2006-31/01/2009
- PARTICIPANTS:
UNICZ-Italy, UNIMIB-Italy, JUMC-Poland, VMWS-United Kingdom, FORTHnet-Greece, SYNAPSIS-Italy, CNR-Italy*, FORTH-Greece*, RBI-Croatia, AUXOL-Italy
*ERCIM-BMI Working Group Member