what is medical grid? - Medical Grid Project

In recent years, imaging technologies such as computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have played significant roles in medicine. Obtaining sophisticated high resolution images of human bodies, non-invasive investigation of the different functions of the human brain, and excellent detection of diseases are but a few significant applications that are made possible by the development of these technologies. In particular, the technique known as functional MRI (fMRI) has led to numerous new findings in perception, cognition, motor control, language, memory and emotion. These findings in turn deepened our understanding of the mechanisms of the human brain which would contribute to many fields, including neurology, neurosurgery, diagnostic radiology, cognitive psychology, human engineering and information science.

These new imaging technologies are still evolving. For instance, functional MRI demands the processing of huge data sets. For it to attain widespread clinical use, it is indispensable to achieve prompt or immediate reporting of analysis results. This requires considerable computing resources which are not readily available in many medical imaging facilities. In this project, we are attempting to establish a system for managing these computational demands using computational grids.

The Medical Grid Project plans to provide 1) cost-effectiveness in the dissemination and maintenance of high performance analysis system, 2) robustness in the analysis by integrating different methodologies, and 3) prompt reporting capability based on real-time processing. The project would promote the research and development of medical technologies by providing on-demand access to high performance analysis systems. Since biological data are usually complex, no single method would be ideal for extracting all the information in the data. Integration of different methodologies would be pursued in maximizing the extracted information from complex signals. The benefit of Medical Grid is obvious, and could be easily expanded into modalities other than fMRI.