Experiences of Engineering Grid-Based Medical Software

TL;DR

This paper evaluates a Grid-based medical imaging system in clinical practice, highlighting the use of use-case modelling for requirements specification and discussing practical advantages, limitations, and lessons learned from deployment.

Contribution

It demonstrates the application of software engineering techniques, especially use-case modelling, in developing and deploying a Grid-enabled medical imaging system in clinical settings.

Findings

Use-case modelling effectively captures medical requirements.

Practical advantages include improved resource sharing and collaboration.

Limitations involve technical and organizational challenges.

Abstract

Objectives: Grid-based technologies are emerging as potential solutions for managing and collaborating distributed resources in the biomedical domain. Few examples exist, however, of successful implementations of Grid-enabled medical systems and even fewer have been deployed for evaluation in practice. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the use in clinical practice of a Grid-based imaging prototype and to establish directions for engineering future medical Grid developments and their subsequent deployment. Method: The MammoGrid project has deployed a prototype system for clinicians using the Grid as its information infrastructure. To assist in the specification of the system requirements (and for the first time in healthgrid applications), use-case modelling has been carried out in close collaboration with clinicians and radiologists who had no prior experience of this modelling technique. A critical qualitative and, where possible, quantitative analysis of the MammoGrid prototype is presented leading to a set of recommendations from the delivery of the first deployed Grid-based medical imaging application. Results: We report critically on the application of software engineering techniques in the specification and implementation of the MammoGrid project and show that use-case modelling is a suitable vehicle for representing medical requirements and for communicating effectively with the clinical community. This paper also discusses the practical advantages and limitations of applying the Grid to real-life clinical applications and presents the consequent lessons learned.