The Bioverse API and web application.

The Bioverse is a framework for creating, warehousing and presenting biological information based on hierarchical levels of organisation. The framework is guided by a deeper philosophy of desiring to represent all relationships between all components of biological systems towards the goal of a wholistic picture of organismal biology. Data from various sources are combined into a single repository and a uniform interface is exposed to access it. The power of the approach of the Bioverse is that, due to its inclusive nature, patterns emerge from the acquired data and new predictions are made. The implementation of this repository (beginning with acquisition of source data, processing in a pipeline, and concluding with storage in a relational database) and interfaces to the data contained in it, from a programmatic application interface to a user friendly web application, are discussed.

How to enhance integrated care towards the personal health paradigm?

For improving quality and efficiency of health delivery under the well-known burdens, the health service paradigm has to change from organization-centered over process-controlled to personal health. The growing complexity of highly distributed and fully integrated healthcare settings can only be managed through an advanced architectural approach, which has to include all dimensions of personal health. Here, ICT, medicine, biomedical engineering, bioinformatics and genomics, legal and administrative aspects, terminology and ontology have to be mentioned. The Generic Component Model allows for different domains' concept representation and aggregation. Framework, requirements, methodology and process design possibilities for such a future-proof and meanwhile practically demonstrated approach are discussed in detail. The deployment of the Generic Component Model and the concept representation to biomedical engineering aspects of eHealth are touched upon as essential issues.

A vision for the National Cancer Program in the United States.

The intersection of two noble endeavors - the scientists' quest to understand life itself and the physicians' dedication to relieve suffering and prolong life - came into sharp focus in 1971 with the United States National Cancer Act. This focus has led to an exponential expansion of our understanding of cancer at the genetic, molecular and cellular levels, and concomitant advances in our ability to disrupt the disease process through prevention, early detection and successful treatment. At the National Cancer Institute we are committed to capitalize on these achievements. A new era is now within our grasp, a time when no one suffers or dies as a result of cancer.