HealthGrid 2009 – Making Money with Grid Computing in Medicine
Congress President of HealthGrid 2009 in Berlin Prof. Dr. Martin Hofmann-Apitius (Fraunhofer SCAI) with Yannick Legré (left), President of the HealthGrid Association, and Sebastian Claudius Semler (right), Scientific Director of TMF, which is hosting this year's HealthGrid Conference. © TMF
This year's HealthGrid Conference, which begins today in Berlin, focuses on developing business models and practical applications from previous grid technology pilot projects. Until July 1, international experts will gather at the dbb-Forum on Friedrichstrasse to discuss key technologies, applications, and the future of grid computing in medicine.
Whether it's complex simulations of blood flow in human blood vessels, computer-assisted matching of genome sequences, or the Europe-wide search for research data on rare childhood diseases, these are all use cases for grid computing in medicine. The first HealthGrids began in 2004-2005, and initial results are now available. Some of the initial projects are currently ending their public funding.
Therefore, experts from around the world will gather at HealthGrid 2009 to exchange results from scientific projects such as caBIG, myGrid, Health-e-Child, ACGT, @neurIST, or the MediGRID project funded by the German D-Grid initiative of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), and discuss potential business models to effectively establish grid technology in healthcare. This involves not only the use of distributed computing capacities on a large scale but also the collaborative use of applications and cooperation between bioscientists and medical professionals across great distances.
"Twenty years ago, the Berlin Wall fell. It teaches us that even iron curtains cannot stop progress when its time has come," says conference chair Prof. Dr. Martin Hofmann-Apitius from the Fraunhofer Institute for Algorithms and Scientific Computing (SCAI) in Sankt Augustin in his welcome message to the Conference Guide. There are still many hurdles to overcome in the field of grid computing, not only technically but also between scientific disciplines.
The conference is hosted by the Telematics Platform for Medical Research Networks (TMF), under whose auspices German grid projects in medicine, medical research, and life sciences collaborate in the Forum Grid. In lectures, workshops, and discussions, experts will explain grids' functioning, specific applications, solutions for data integration, and availability and accessibility. Socio-economic aspects and the future of grid technology will also be topics of professional exchange.
Venue:
dbb forum berlin, Friedrichstraße 169/170, D-10117 Berlin
Further Information:
TMF Conference Office, Neustädtische Kirchstr. 6, 10117 Berlin
Phone: 030 31 01 19 54
E-mail: HealthGrid2009@tmf-ev.de
Press Contact:
Beate Achilles
Phone: 030 – 31 01 19 51
Mobile: 0163 15 81 396
E-mail
