The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the steward of biomedical research for the United States, with the mission of pursuing knowledge in biomedical science and applying that scientifc knowledge to improve human health. The effectiveness of the NIH depends on its ability to foster fundamental, innovative and valuable research and to communicate and implement new knowledge expeditiously.
To this end, the NIH's interests and activities in the IITA component of the High Performance Computing and Communications Program (HPCC) are focused on exploiting developments in information technology as well as the emerging NII to facilitate: improvements in medical technology; group cooperative work environments through software, interfaces and networking; high performance, high speed acquisition, storage and dissemination of health-related patient and research data; better coordination of large scale complex research programs; and high performance communications to accesss high performance computing.
The National Library of Medicine (NLM) IITA program supports research and development to create testbed networks for linking health care facilities, systems for visualizing human anatomy, medical applications of virtual reality technology, telemedicine methods and systems, and database technology for storing, accessing, and transmitting patients' medical records while protecting the accuracy and privacy of those records. This research and development effort is supported via the mechanism of a Broad Agency Announcement.
IITA initiatives in the National Center for Research Resources emphasize simulation, image analysis, virtual reality, group software development and science education. In the area of simulation, major goals are to enhance computational capabilities and project the course of epidemics such as AIDS. Image analysis goals are in real-time medical imaging. Virtual reality includes development of tools to expand basic and clinical application of technological methods and instrumentation. Group software development goals are to support group cooperative work environments and use of networks. Science education will emphasize the development of interactive learning tools to increase public and student understanding of science. NCRR programs support these initiatives through both investigator initiated resource centers and research projects.
The Division of Computer Research and Technology (DCRT) is developing new methods of medical imaging for basic research, clinical research, and health care delivery in collaboration with the Radiology and Nuclear Medicine Departments of the NIH Clinical Center and the Radiation Oncology Branch of the National Cancer Institute. This work includes the development of scalable parallel algorithms for medical image processing and radiation treatment planning, the deployment of powerful workstations for medical image visualization, and the deployment of high speed networks for the transfer of images between these visualization workstations and high performance parallel computer systems.
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) activities in IITA include an intramural project to develop network based multimedia conferencing in which all users participate in a shared session with the goal of facilitating cooperative research, as well as several projects aimed at increasing the availability of PDQ (Physician Data Query) and other cancer related information over multiple dissemination platforms for the medical and cancer patient communities. These projects involve the development of new interfaces to PDQ through SBIR contracts, use of Internet and Gopher to facilitate access, Spanish language translations through Internet and development of a multimedia CD-I platform for disseminating health information. NCI cooperates with NLM and DCRT in telemedicine and several other IITA areas.