Facilitating and Augmenting Collaboration in the Biomedical Domain

Abstract

This paper reports on a Web 2.0 tool that aims to facilitate and augment collaboration and decision making in data-intensive and cognitively-complex biomedical settings. The proposed tool exploits prominent high-performance computing paradigms and large data processing technologies to meaningfully search, analyze and aggregate data existing in diverse, extremely large and rapidly evolving sources. It can be viewed as an innovative workbench incorporating and orchestrating a set of interoperable services that reduce the data-intensiveness and complexity overload at critical decision points to a manageable level, thus permitting stakeholders to be more productive and concentrate on creative activities. Through a particular collaboration scenario, we explore various possibilities and challenges of managing biomedical collaboration with the use of the proposed tool. Much attention is given at the increase of volume, rate of production and complexity of the associated data types.