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Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Extends Value of Clinical and Research Data with Oracle
Oracle® Healthcare Transaction Base and Oracle Fusion Middleware Form Foundation for
Translational Research Infrastructure Created to Improve Disease Understanding and Treatment
August 4, 2008
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Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, one of the leading cancer research and
care centers in the United States, is using Oracle(r) Healthcare
Transaction Base (HTB) and Oracle Fusion Middleware components as
the foundation for its new translational research infrastructure.
The new infrastructure is designed to maximize the value of clinical and
research data, and help improve disease understanding and patient care.
Dana-Farber, through its research, collects large amounts of patient and
clinical data, as well as thousands of biological samples. It also relies on
outside data sources to advance its research and understanding of
complex diseases.
To design new studies and address complex questions, Dana-Farber
researchers need to aggregate clinical, sample and genomic data from
within and beyond the organization's collections.
Dana-Farber, like many research organizations, lacked a single,
integrated data infrastructure that enables aggregation and provides a
comprehensive view.
Using Oracle Healthcare Transaction Base, Dana-Farber created an
integrated data repository that enables researchers to access clinical and
sample data using a single platform and seamlessly connect it with
experimental data.
The new data infrastructure helps researchers investigate clinical data
more thoroughly, make complex queries and more complete data
analysis, and improve experiment design. It also enables more rapid
queries, providing researchers with answers in minutes to queries that
previously required days to process.
To help ensure compliance with Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act (HIPAA) requirements, Oracle infrastructure software
enables Dana-Farber to match clinical data and samples from specific
patients and then remove identifying information from the data before
presenting it to a researcher.
Dana-Farber deployed Oracle Identity Management and Oracle Access
Manager, components of the Oracle Fusion Middleware suite, to enable
researchers to securely access data from any location.
Oracle BPEL Process Manager enables Dana-Farber to manage complex
clinical data transfers securely as well as replicate processes that require
multiple deployments across the infrastructure.
Dana-Farber uses Oracle Fusion Middleware to build and manage web
services that facilitate integration with third-party applications for advanced
analytics and data mining across the various data sets.
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Dana-Farber worked with Oracle Consulting to identify requirements,
design and, ultimately, deploy the solution using off-the-shelf products going live within five months after completion of the solution design.
Supporting Quotes
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"Oracle Healthcare Transaction Base enabled us to securely integrate our
clinical, sample and genomic data - helping us to maximize the use of this
information in our quest to develop a better understanding of and
treatments for serious diseases," said John Quackenbush, Ph.D.,
Professor of Biostatics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer
Institute. "We leveraged Oracle's extensive offerings to create a solution
that helps our researchers work more securely and with greater insight.
And because we leveraged Oracle's existing technology, we have a
system that we could rapidly implement, that is scalable and extensible,
and one that can serve as a framework for other organizations facing
similar challenges."
"Health sciences organizations require advanced data integration
capabilities, combined with analytical power and process flexibility, to
effectively support emerging translational medicine initiatives," said Neil de
Crescenzo, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Oracle Health
Sciences Global Business Unit. "Oracle solutions, such as Oracle
Healthcare Transaction Base, facilitate powerful enterprise-wide data
integration that helps organizations enable the critical flow of information
from the bedside to the bench, and vice versa."
About Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute provides expert, compassionate care to children and adults
with cancer, while advancing the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, cure, and
prevention of cancer and related diseases. Founded in 1947, it is a principal teaching
affiliate of the Harvard Medical School and is among the leading cancer research and
care centers in the United States. It is a founding member of the Dana-Farber/Harvard
Cancer Center, which is designated as a comprehensive cancer center by the National
Cancer Institute. It also provides training for new generations of physicians and
scientists; designs programs that promote public health; and disseminates innovative
patient therapies and scientific discoveries to its target community across the United
States and throughout the world.
Related Resources
Oracle in Health Sciences
Oracle Healthcare Transaction Base
Oracle Identity Management
Oracle Access Manager
Oracle BPEL Process Manager
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Dr. Quackenbush's Laboratory
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http://www.oracle.com.
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Contact Info
Kevin Ruane
Oracle
+1.650.506.6610
[email protected]
Kelli Davis
O'Keeffe & Company
+1.757.966.1676
[email protected]