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Facilitating Broad Use of caBIG® Tools and Technology
To support the growing caBIG® community, the NCI's Center for Biomedical Informatics and Information Technology (CBIIT) established the Enterprise Support Network (ESN). The ESN is a collection of diverse organizations that provide technical services, mentoring, and expertise to researchers and IT staff. Two components of the ESN include Knowledge Centers and Support Service Providers:
Knowledge Centers
Knowledge Centers were established at institutions with demonstrated expertise in specific areas of interest to caBIG® users. These Knowledge Centers provide support services, including web-based education and domain expertise in tool integration and use, and serve as the interface to the community for ongoing software development requests.
The six Knowledge Centers cover the following areas of expertise:
caGrid: The Ohio State University and The Ohio State Comprehensive Cancer Center, with the University of Chicago and the Argonne National Laboratory
Clinical Trials Management Systems: Duke University Comprehensive Cancer Center, with Northwestern University, Cancer and Leukemia Group B – Information Systems (CALGB-IS), and SemanticBits
Molecular Analysis Tools: Columbia University Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center with the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
Tissue/Biospecimen Banking and Technology Tools: Siteman Cancer Center, Washington University at St. Louis
Vocabulary: Mayo Clinic
Data Sharing and Intellectual Capital: The University of Michigan
Support Service Providers
Support Service Providers are licensed by the NCI and assist clients wishing to install, modify, or better use caBIG® tools and technology, under negotiated client-provider business arrangements. caBIG® Support Service Providers, who range from small software companies to Fortune 500 companies, offer: Help desk support, Adaptation and enhancement of caBIG®-compatible applications, Deployment support for existing caBIG® applications, and Documentation and training materials and services. For more information about Support Service Providers, please visit: https://cabig.nci.nih.gov/esn/service_providers.
Data Sharing Policies for Diverse Fields of Study
Policies that promote broad-based information sharing under appropriate access terms are needed for compliance with HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), government regulations, and institutional policies. caBIG® recognizes that decisions to share data are made locally by organizations that are stewards of the data. To address multiple legal, policy, ethical, cultural, and security issues affecting collaboration, caBIG® participants developed the Data Sharing and Security Framework (DSSF) and items such as model agreements, guidance documents, and decision support tools. The purpose of the Framework is to provide the decision logic for analyzing data sensitivity to determine the appropriate data sharing mechanisms and the appropriate security and data access controls to apply to access the data. For more information, please visit: https://wiki.nci.nih.gov/display/DSIC.
The Framework and accompanying tools recognize there are varying levels of sensitivity of health information and that many data exchanges require agreements, user validation, authorization of intended uses, etc. Institutions determine who is authorized and under what conditions. The intended audience for the Framework includes researchers and their study teams, IRB members, privacy officers, grant staff, technology transfer staff, and legal counsel.
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