INBIOMED: a platform for the integration and sharing of genetic, clinical and epidemiological data oriented to biomedical research

INBIOMED is a biomedical informatics network that coordinates biomedical informatics and biomedical research groups working on diverse approaches (pharmacogenetics, genetic epidemiology and image-based diagnosis). The INBIOMED informatics platform is designed to facilitate the integration and sharing of clinical, genetic and epidemiological data, as well as to provide tools to analyze experimental data, predict and simulate biomedical knowledge. The INBIOMED platform integrates information from heterogeneous data sources, based on the available standards, facilitating the application of information analysis to study a concrete pathology. The integration of biomedical data will allow to obtain significant results to use in clinical and biomedical research as, for example in the development of diagnostic systems based on molecular and genetic classifications that could be applied in the study of tumors, the development of pharmacogenetics treatments, and the development of applications to improve public health research by means of the development of genomic epidemiology. This paper also presents the motivation for, and the initial stages in planning the application of grid technology for the INBIOMED Network.