PopSciGrid: Transforming cancer prevention and control through data harmonization, collaboration, and visualization of data In the context of a ?cells to society'deluge of information spanning the genomic, biomedical, behavioral, and environmental sciences, cancer prevention and control efforts need to better utilize the unprecedented amount of electronic data available at our fingertips. The National Research Council has identified data sharing and integration as primary challenges for utilizing advances in health informatics at the population level (Computational Technology for Effective Health Care, 2009). To help engage public health scientists and practitioners in this regard, the National Cancer Institute's (NCI) Division of Cancer Control and Population Science (DCCPS) is developing a population sciences portal called PopSciGrid on the cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid (caBIG). PopSciGrid can help encourage multi-disciplinary collaboration, data harmonization, and development of new computational methods to rapidly analyze and identify longitudinal, multi-level patterns in health related data. By developing specific grid-enabled applications for different public health stakeholders - researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and the public - computing initiatives such as PopSciGrid have the potential to transform cancer prevention and control research and practice.
