Sharing behavioral data through a grid infrastructure using data standards.

Objective: In an effort to standardize behavioral measures and their data representation, the present study develops a methodology for incorporating measures found in the National Cancer Institute's (NCI) grid-enabled measures (GEM) portal, a repository for behavioral and social measures, into the cancer data standards registry and repository (caDSR).

Methods: The methodology consists of four parts for curating GEM measures into the caDSR: (1) develop unified modeling language (UML) models for behavioral measures; (2) create common data elements (CDE) for UML components; (3) bind CDE with concepts from the NCI thesaurus; and (4) register CDE in the caDSR.

Results: UML models have been developed for four GEM measures, which have been registered in the caDSR as CDE.

Overview of electronic data sharing: why, how, and impact.

Electronic data sharing is a critical, but underappreciated, requirement for modern medical informatics systems. This capability is facilitated by acquisition of structured clinical data, but optimized only if this data is stored and transmitted using standardized representations. Most electronic medical record and clinical trials management systems are poorly suited for data sharing.

Bluebottle envenomation-induced crystalline keratopathy.

Purpose: To report a patient who developed a crystalline keratopathy after bluebottle envenomation of the cornea.

Method: Case report with histopathological correlation and literature review.

Results: A 61-year-old man presented to the Ophthalmology clinic after he was stung in the left eye by a bluebottle while swimming in the sea.

A rare unilateral case of ocular mucous membrane pemphigoid.

Purpose: Ocular mucous membrane pemphigoid (MMP) is known to be rapidly progressive in younger patients and affects both eyes. We are aware of only one other reported case of unilateral ocular MMP. The case presented in this study is unique in that it demonstrates genuinely unilateral ocular MMP in a younger patient.

Synchronous radiation-induced orbital meningioma and multiple cavernomas.

Synchronous radiation-induced tumours are extremely rare. We present the first reported case of synchronous radiation-induced orbital meningioma and cavernomas of the cerebellum and bilateral basal ganglia, presenting 16 years after ionizing radiation therapy for parietal anaplastic ependymoma, at the age of five. This case again underscores the risks of radiotherapy to children.

caCORE version 3: Implementation of a model driven, service-oriented architecture for semantic interoperability.

One of the requirements for a federated information system is interoperability, the ability of one computer system to access and use the resources of another system. This feature is particularly important in biomedical research systems, which need to coordinate a variety of disparate types of data. In order to meet this need, the National Cancer Institute Center for Bioinformatics (NCICB) has created the cancer Common Ontologic Representation Environment (caCORE), an interoperability infrastructure based on Model Driven Architecture.