IMENSE: An e-infrastructure environment for patient specific multiscale data integration, modelling and clinical treatment

Secure access to patient data and analysis tools to run on that data will revolutionize the treatment of a wide range of diseases, by using advanced simulation techniques to underpin the clinical decision making process. To achieve these goals, suitable e-Science infrastructures are required to allow clinicians and researchers to trivially access data and launch simulations. In this paper we describe the open source Individualized MEdiciNe Simulation Environment (IMENSE), which provides a platform to securely manage clinical data, and to perform wide ranging analysis on that data, ultimately with the intention of enhancing clinical decision making with direct impact on patient health care. We motivate the design decisions taken in the development of the IMENSE system by considering the needs of researchers in the ContraCancrum project, which provides a paradigmatic case in which clinicians and researchers require coordinated access to data and simulation tools. We show how the modular nature of the IMENSE system makes it applicable to a wide range of biomedical computing scenarios, from within a single hospital to major international research projects.

► Clinicians face making decisions based on analysis of many different types of data. ► Integrating disparate data sources can assist the clinical decision making process. ► The IMENSE system integrates different types of clinical data from multiple sources. ► Clinicians and researchers can use the system to perform complex analysis techniques.