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Dell announced that they plans to commit funding, dedicate employees and donate cloud computing technology to help treat pediatric cancer coincided with Porter Research's annual trip to the Healthcare IT Summit.

Last month's announcement from Dell that the company plans to commit funding, dedicate employees and donate cloud computing technology to help treat pediatric cancer coincided with Porter Research's annual trip to the Healthcare IT Summit - an event that brings together providers, payers, vendors and consultants for networking, educational, and yes, even sales, opportunities. Dell team members were on hand to discuss the company's latest offerings with providers, and to help make the case that the company is moving far beyond its student desktop days.

This progression is certainly evident in the company's aforementioned announcement - the first of its kind - of a multimillion dollar, multiyear commitment of technology and manpower, which includes partnering with the Neuroblastoma and Medulloblastoma Translational Research Consortium (NMTRC), the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) and the Van Andel Research Institute (VARI).

As part of the Dell Powering the Possible giving program, this partnership will enable medical personnel around the world to "support research to identify and share personalized treatments in days instead of months, and expand the reach and impact of the world's first FDA-approved personalized medicine trial for pediatric cancer," according to a recent Dell press release.

Dell's cloud computing technology will be a critical component of these efforts. Specifically, it will not only help to improve collaboration amongst care providers in different parts of the world, but will also increase TGen's computer gene sequencing and analysis capacity by 1,200 percent.

Porter Research recently sat down with James M. Coffin, Ph.D., Vice President and General Manager, Dell Healthcare & Life Sciences, to learn more about what the cloud will mean to cancer research.

Why did Dell decide to focus on pediatric cancer? Is this a cause that is near and dear to the company's heart? 
James Coffin: In general, there are limited resources devoted to researching pediatric cancer. With little commercially or federally funded research underway because of its small patient base, parents and pediatric oncologists have relied largely on "trial and error" in their search for a treatment that will work for neuroblastoma patients from among the hundreds of available adult cancer trials. We believe that this trial can be a real game-changer in the treatment of pediatric cancer, and this is an area where Dell solutions, people and funding can address an unmet need and make a real and lasting impact.

How long has this partnership been in the works? Is there one particular Dell member that was behind it?
Dell has been working with TGen for a number of years, and I have personally known Jeff Trent, President and Director of Research at TGen, for many years before that. This project is an outgrowth of that long-standing relationship.

In terms of cloud computing, do you believe this is a technology that is still on the "fringe?" - one that hasn't been wholeheartedly embraced by providers?
More and more providers are seeing the advantages of moving data to the cloud. Cloud computing eliminates many of the silos that exist in health information management today, while offering significant efficiencies and cost savings in the long term.

With the explosive growth of electronic health data, storage can represent more than 20 percent of healthcare IT budgets. Cloud computing enables organizations to scale seamlessly and only use the resources that are immediately required. In addition, storing data in the cloud opens infinite possibilities for analytics and collaboration that ultimately can lead to better healthcare and improved outcomes.

Why has cloud computing not been adopted more quickly by hospitals and smaller physician practices? Do security and budgetary concerns have a part to play in this hesitation? 
Of course, privacy and security are key concerns, but there are many approaches to the cloud that can safeguard data and address HIPAA requirements, from encryption technologies to private clouds that keep sensitive information both protected and accessible. If you ask me if I'd rather have my data stored in a private, secure cloud or on paper at my local hospital, I'll take the cloud any day. During catastrophes like the Joplin tornado or Hurricane Katrina, vital healthcare information is protected and can easily be recovered when needed most.

Will programs like the pediatric cancer research partnership help to change this thinking? 
I think so, because this project clearly demonstrates how cloud computing can directly impact and improve patient care. The donated cloud will help increase TGen's gene sequencing processing and analysis capacity, help improve collaboration between TGen scientists and oncologists, and create a knowledge repository for oncologists tackling disease globally.

On a larger scale, we believe that cloud computing platforms could support complex biomedical knowledge exchanges between the healthcare providers, research centers, clinical genomics and molecular diagnostic vendors and pharmaceutical researchers interested in participating in personalized medicine.

What, exactly, will Dell be donating when it comes to cloud computing technology?
The donated cloud will be powered by Dell PowerEdge Blade Servers, PowerVault Storage Arrays, Dell Compellent Storage Center arrays and Dell Force10 Network infrastructure. Dell Precision Workstations will be used for data analysis and review. Specifically, the cloud will support the personalized medicine trial for pediatric cancer by:

• Increasing computation and collaboration capacity by 1,200 percent compared to TGen's existing clinical cluster.
• The cloud's sustained performance is 8.2 teraflops and is growing; estimated maximum performance is approximately 13 teraflops.
• Reducing tumor mapping and analysis time from months to days
• Providing a secure, cloud-based framework for the pediatric oncology community to store, move and analyze genomic data effectively and efficiently.
• Enhancing global access to personalized treatments, which will improve treatments for children fighting cancer above today's conventional "trial and error" method.
• Supporting collaboration and the development of best practices in the treatment of pediatric cancers.

How involved have the researchers at TGen been with regard to helping Dell decide what sort of technology to donate? 
This has been a true partnership from the start. Dell has a team of technical specialists working with TGen to design, implement and help maintain the donated cloud platform at TGen's headquarters in Phoenix, Ariz. Dell will also provide workstations and integrate the nodes that sit at medical center sites with the centralized data center. TGen will develop and use its bio-intelligence tools.

By controlling the prototype and versioning of the systems, TGen will be able to develop and test the integrated solution until it is to the point where it is scalable to tens of thousands of patients, and capable of being replicated across multiple clinical sites hosting trials for a multitude of pediatric cancers.

What hospitals in the US will be part of this program at the outset?
Current members in the NMTRC participating in the personalized medicine clinical trial for pediatric cancer include:

• National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD
• Helen DeVos Children's Hospital, Grand Rapids, MI
• Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, MO
• Rady Children's Hospital San Diego, UCSD School of Medicine, San Diego, C
• Medical University of South Carolina, SC
• Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Orlando, FL
• Levine Children's Hospital, Charlotte, NC
• Connecticut Children's Hospital, Hartford, CT
• Doernbecher Children's Hospital, Oregon Health & Science University, OR
• Children's Mercy Hospital, Kansas City, MO
• The University of Texas, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX

The NMTRC is currently bringing on additional medical centers, and more are planned aas the trial expands. We hope to have at least one international clinical facility in the first year (in Luxembourg, UK, Canada or Germany). Additional international sites will be added in subsequent years.

As the healthcare industry moves towards more of a team approach to patient care, Dell's commitment to using cloud computing technology highlights the benefit healthcare IT can bring to new, coordinated care models - inside or outside of the United States. Hopefully, moving from desktop to cloud will be of immediate benefit to the 100,000 children in the United States that are diagnosed with neuroblastoma each year, and of lasting benefit to an industry that is just figuring out how to embrace a holistic view of healthcare.

Source: Porter Research