Numerical simulation for eHealth: Grid-enabled medical simulation services

Abstract

The European grid-enabled medical simulation services (GEMSS) project is concerned with the creation of medical grid service prototypes and their evaluation in a secure service-oriented infrastructure for distributed on-demand super-computing, the GEMSS test-bed. The medical prototype applications include maxillofacial surgery simulation, neuro-surgery support, radio-surgery planning, inhaled drug-delivery simulation, cardio-vascular simulation and tomographic image reconstruction. GEMSS will enable the wide-spread use of these computationally demanding tools originating from projects, such as BloodSim, SimBio, COPHIT (Computer-Optimised Pulmonary Delivery in Humans of Inhaled Therapies), and RAPT as grid services. The numerical high-performance computing core includes parallel finite element software and computational fluid dynamics simulation, as well as parallel optimization methods and parallel monte carlo simulation. Targeted end-user groups include bio-mechanics laboratories, hospital surgery/radiology units, diagnostic and therapeutic departments, designers of medical devices in industry as well as small enterprises involved in consultancy on bio-medical simulations. GEMSS addresses security, privacy, and legal issues related to the grid provision of medical simulation and image processing services, and the development of suitable business models for sustainable use. The first prototype of the GEMSS middleware is expected to be released in February 2004.