Grid based sleep research — Analysis of polysomnographies using a grid infrastructure

Sleep medicine and sleep research often include comprehensive analysis of multidimensional biosignal recordings during the whole bedtime phase, so called polysomnographies. In order to build an environment for support on the development of new analysis tools and clinical research in the field of sleep research, a production grid infrastructure is employed. Clinical data and polysomnographies from over 300 persons have been integrated as a reference database, and different algorithms for automated analysis of electrocardiograms (ECGs) are implemented. The database can be queried and matching data can be analyzed individually and as a collection. Workflow integration of the analysis and portlet based user interfaces provide a high level of abstraction, hiding the complexity of the underlying grid system and employing basic fault tolerance. The system is laid out for future extension to allow medical decision support based on the developed methods.