Concept of a medical and public health cancer genomics platform

Abstract

Abstract Background This study aims to produce the concept of an open-access medical and public health cancer genomics platform aimed at aggregating and sharing documentation of ongoing initiatives and data resulting from the CAN.HEAL project, available for EU researchers, healthcare professionals, policy makers, citizens and patients. Methods The context (reference sector, stakeholders and research evidences), feasibility (privacy management and data processing), and platform’s end users were analysed; the CAN.HEAL project deliverables were listed and clustered; aspects related to the definition of the overall platform architecture and modules integration were studied. Results The project deliverables were catalogued into 8 categories which could be the platform’s cloud interface main labels: results from events, policy papers, newsletters, mapping results and reports, datasets, recommendations and guidelines, use cases, courses and training activities. To define the overall system architecture, the following key activities should be implemented: content management system choice, hosting configuration and setup of the development domain, content management system installation, development of HTML web pages, data entry, data visualisation and graphic layout, and test and debug. To the modules integration purposes the following items should be addressed: creation of a server analytics account; social network integration; activation of additional system for sending newsletters. Conclusions Cloud-based data platform allows to securely manage, integrate, analyse and share large datasets. Establishing an infrastructure to help researchers access, store and analyse large amounts of biological data is of paramount importance both to enable advances in research and support health policy making processes. The CAN.HEAL platform could help aligning clinical and population-based interventions for integrating the genome of Europe biobanking initiative into public health genomics for cancer. Key messages • Connecting healthcare data can support the challenge of accessing the relevant information needed for the policy and decision making processes to effectively promote population health and wellbeing. • The set-up of a medical and public health cancer genomics platform promotes the effective translation of genome-based knowledge and technologies into public policy and health services.