IBM streamlines medical research

Tech giant, IBM has open sourced part of its Blue Spruce Web collaboration suite for doctors studying the features and genetic origins of illness, reports The Register.

Big Blue has passed the code to the Dojo Foundation's Open Co-operative Web Framework, where it is already being used in a National Institutes of Health-funded study of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

IBM Technology with OpenCoweb Framework act as the key components in systems used by COPDGene investigators, and allow clinics and medical imaging findings to correlate increasing understanding of the disease and underlying genetic factors, states Executive Biz.

“The online system we've been using on the COPDGene patients is exciting and extremely impressive,” says James Crapo, MD and COPDGene executive committee member.

“With the online collaboration capabilities we now have at our fingertips, we're in constant communication, and are uncovering key trends that will help us to better understand the disease.”

In an eMoney Daily report, David Boloker, CTO of emerging technologies at IBM, says: “IBM believes an ongoing commitment to open source and co-operative applications is a critical component for building a smarter, healthier planet.

“We are pleased to open code and drive innovation in partnership with the Dojo Foundation Project, in an effort to streamline and enhance research and real-time interactive analysis of participant data.”