A perspective on the Healthgrid initiative

TL;DR

The paper discusses the Healthgrid initiative, which aims to promote grid technology applications in healthcare by fostering collaboration, data sharing, and developing specialized medical grid technologies across European projects.

Contribution

It provides a perspective on the development, goals, and early applications of the Healthgrid initiative and related European health grid projects.

Findings

Early applications demonstrate the potential of grid technology in health.

Healthgrid fosters collaboration among European health projects.

Development of medical-specific grid technologies is underway.

Abstract

This paper presents a perspective on the Healthgrid initiative which involves European projects deploying pioneering applications of grid technology in the health sector. In the last couple of years, several grid projects have been funded on health related issues at national and European levels. A crucial issue is to maximize their cross fertilization in the context of an environment where data of medical interest can be stored and made easily available to the different actors in healthcare, physicians, healthcare centres and administrations, and of course the citizens. The Healthgrid initiative, represented by the Healthgrid association (http://www.healthgrid.org), was initiated to bring the necessary long term continuity, to reinforce and promote awareness of the possibilities and advantages linked to the deployment of GRID technologies in health. Technologies to address the specific requirements for medical applications are under development. Results from the DataGrid and other projects are given as examples of early applications.