Director's Note
The 2010 caBIG® Annual Meeting—the 6th such meeting in our history—brought numerous insights about current usage of caBIG® capabilities, where biomedical informatics is headed overall, and what kinds of innovation we may see in coming years.
caBIG® usage, of course, is very diverse, since each laboratory, institution, or research collaboration is unique. Some Cancer Centers want a complete transformation of how they collect and manage data, and are using caBIG® as an enterprise-wide framework to digitize their operations. Other Cancer Centers have available systems, and seek merely to fill a gap or connect two functions or make one department function more effectively. Across this spectrum is the common theme, though, that the "old way" stymied good science, and the "new" interconnected way is liberating scientists to do their best work in the fastest way possible.
Biomedical informatics is evolving faster than one might have imagined. It's clear that seamlessly linking research and clinical care—along with analytics and administrative functions—is where the field is headed. Silos are going to be a thing of the past, as the sensibility of biomedical organizations shifts towards the key principles of moving data rapidly from research bench to bedside and back to bench, and utilizing the data to build knowledge at every step. And along the way, the patient will certainly have far greater involvement, providing information and partaking of it in more dynamic, convenient, and continuous ways to improve health. caBIG® activities in an oncology-extended Electronic Health Record and Clinical Information Suite will help move information among all stakeholders, ensuring that innovation comes from multiple sources.
caBIG® capabilities are providing researchers with manageable access to massive amounts of multi-dimensional data—the very "tsunami" that gave rise to this initiative. We are connecting end users to molecular data, imaging data, biospecimen data, and clinical data…all of which can fuel discoveries and improve patient outcomes. Equally exciting are changes afoot in the health paradigm—designed to leverage this information more broadly—and a growing understanding and acceptance of the value of seamless, immediate access to data from throughout the biomedical ecosystem. As the size of this ecosystem of information and capabilities continues to grow, so will its value. The notion of a rapid learning health system, where patient outcomes and newly discovered knowledge are quickly made available and rapidly incorporated into practice, is becoming a reality.
With all of the impressive case studies and examples of caBIG® in action that I was treated to onsite at the annual meeting, one thing that struck me is the many diverse approaches that participants are using to become interoperable with caBIG®. Gone are the days of our binary "adopt/adapt" model, and in its place, is a "spectrum of interoperability", to ensure an approach that is customized to each organization and its own needs and existing systems.
That theme is echoed in this month's issue of LINKS, as we see two institutions using caBIG® to improve biospecimen management operations, using very different approaches. I encourage you to read the latest, and to stay tuned for a variety of resources from the Annual Meeting—including videos and presentations—that will be available this month.
Sincerely,
Ken Buetow
