The design, specification, development, and enhancement of caBIG® software applications, policy documents, and resources takes place under the oversight of the caBIG® Workspaces. Workspace participants provide data, subject matter expertise, and solutions; create and evaluate standards; and help shape the workspace's strategic direction. Participants may also:
- Develop or modify interoperable tools (e.g., software, infrastructure)
- Adopt software applications for use in settings different from those in which they were developed
- Mentor others in data model and tool development, software development, documentation, or training activities
- Contribute to white papers in strategic, policy, or technology areas
Currently, workspaces are organized into three categories: Domain Workspaces, Cross Cutting Workspaces and Strategic Level Workspaces.
Domain WorkspacesClinical Trial Management Systems: Oversees the development of software tools that support consistent, open, and comprehensive clinical trials management, including enrollment of patients, tracking of protocols, recording of outcomes information, administration of trials, and submission of data to regulatory authorities
Integrative Cancer Research Workspace: Specifies and builds software tools and systems to enable integration of molecular information (such as data from high-throughput genomic and proteomic technologies) with clinical information (such as data collected from biospecimen donors)
In Vivo Imaging Workspace: Designs, creates, optimizes, and validates tools and methods to store, manage, share, and extract meaning from medical imaging data
Tissue Banks and Pathology Tools Workspace: Develops software tools for the collection, processing, and dissemination of biospecimens, including the annotation of those biospecimens with donor clinical and protocol data, as well as for the operational and administrative aspects of biorepositories
Architecture: Develops communication standards, systems and IT infrastructure necessary for all caBIG® tools to interoperate as a grid via the Internet, including solutions for access control, security, and patient data protection
Vocabularies and Common Data Elements: Works with internal caBIG® groups and external standards organizations to create, enhance, manage and foster the adoption of data standards, including the development, promotion, and support of vocabularies, ontologies, and common data elements to ensure that the entire caBIG® community is speaking the same "language"
Data Sharing and Intellectual Capital: Develops guidelines and policies and works with the caBIG® Architecture Workspace to develop security applications for the sharing of data, software, and inventions within the caBIG®-funded cancer community. This workspace addresses, for example, how to implement patient protection policies; the ethical, legal, and contractual obligations associated with the sharing of clinical data and biospecimens; and how the public and private sector should interact when using caBIG® tools in collaboration
Documentation and Training: Defines and develops guidelines, processes, templates and tools for developing consistent software documentation and training materials and for fostering mentoring activities throughout caBIG®
Strategic Planning: Assists in identifying strategic priorities for the development and evolution of the caBIG® program
