The problem of how best to provide computer assistance in the collection and analysis of clinical data for radiation therapy will be solved in a new way. This project will examine the extent to which data can be transferred between the various computer applications in radiation therapy without requiring that all systems obey a single restricted standard. A system will be developed to utilize data from many sources in many environments, so that the accumulation of data for prospective clinical trials can be computerized without duplicating existing computerized record-keeping systems. The means to do this will be to define an intermediate data description format and a set of transformation tools that convert between the various computer applications and the standard format. This technique has been successfully applied in the business world for interchange of data between spreadsheets and other business software tools. We expect that a similar technique will provide a much needed capability to flexibly handle clinical cancer data as well. The initial study will conduct a survey to determine the extent of potential for data interchange and develop prototype specification for the interchange format and tools.
