Access Grid (AG) Collaboration

A group of academic medical centers have deployed Access Grid technologies to embellish telemedicine programs. A Virtual Tumor Board is used to  review of complex pathology cases that utilize Access Grid technology.  A tumor board is a gathering of leading authorities (surgeons, oncologists, radiologists, pathologists, etc.) collaborating together in the diagnosis and treatment of the cancer patient. A multidisciplinary team within the University of Washington’s School of Medicine has developed a set of collaborative Internet tools allowing distributed tumor board conferencing using the Next Generation Internet (NGI). The effort, funded through the National Library of Medicine’s Biomedical Applications of the NGI program, is lead by Brent K. Stewart, Professor of Radiology and Director of Imaging Informatics.

The Seattle-area sites participating in this initiative include the University of Washington Academic Medical Center, Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. In addition to collaboration via IP videoconferencing from these locations, the Virtual Tumor Board participants use a web-based information system to display and share case records, pathology slides, radiology images, video, graphics, documents, and treatment protocols. In the next phase of this initiative, Stewart’s team hopes to extend the virtual tumor board to include under-served areas such as Alaska, Montana, and Wyoming. According to Stewart, “By developing tools that remove geographical constraints and increase collaboration between experts in managing cancer care we hope to ultimately provide more effective treatments for patients.”