Tommie Curtis
Metadata Analyst
Science Applications International Corporation

Dianne Reeves
Associate Director, Biomedical Data Standards
NCI Center for Biomedical Informatics and Information Technology (CBIIT)



George Komatsoulis
Director, Quality Assurance and Compliance
NCI Center for Biomedical Informatics and Information Technology (CBIIT)


Wednesday 2:15pm - 3:15pm

Level: Data Management - Introductory

The award winning National Cancer Institute (NCI) Cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid (caBIG™) Version 1.0 is a program that supports the creation and use of a syntactically and semantically interoperable data on an analytical service grid characterized by federated development. caBIG™ developers leverage the NCICBIIT caCORE infrastructure, comprised of open source tools, business processes, and best practices, to achieve interoperability through the use of semantically equivalent data elements describing object-oriented data systems. These data elements and the object models are supported by controlled terminology and are programmatically accessible at run-time from an ISO/IEC 11179 compliant metadata registry. Recognizing that compatibility requires both technology and process, a Vocabularies and Common Data Elements (VCDE) workspace, staffed by volunteers and funded participants responsible for the review and coordination of information models, vocabulary and data element usage, and data standards, was established. The VCDE approach is pivotal to ongoing metadata management and harmonization processes within the NCI and caBIG™. The caBIG™ user community is eagerly seeking opportunities to use and expand grid capabilities.