This effort prototypes a new 21st century biomedical ?ecosystem? in the cancer community. The information technology platform underpinning this effort is the caBIG? (?ca? for cancer and ?BIG? for the Biomedical Informatics Grid). caBIG? flexibly connects local data and applications with software, data, and infrastructure services offered through the internet ?cloud?, using a semantically constrained Services Oriented Architecture (SOA). The NCI has launched a Community Cancer Center Program. This program consists of two national networks of hospitals and 8 regional groups with deep geographic coverage that in total cover 20 million lives. In this project NCI will work with the above communities to develop and deploy standards-based, oncology-specific extensions to hospital, physician-practice, and consumer electronic health records. Through the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT) process, oncology-extended electronic health record developers will be certified as caBIG?-compliant. These oncology-extended Electronic Health Records EHRs (like all caBIG systems) are based on the concept of a SOA, allowing them to function as flexible parts of a larger healthcare IT infrastructure.
