Cloud Computing Becoming Pivotal to Cancer Research
It’s no secret that cloud computing can reshape the way we do business. One of the lesser talked about facets of cloud computing is its impact on medicine and patient care, particularly within the cancer research field.
Earlier last year, we penned an article called Canada’s Cloud to Help Cure Cancer. In the article, we broke down the argument for using cloud as a means to handle the Big Data associated with cancer treatment. Cancer researchers have fully realized the implications of the cloud on onocological medicine and many organizations are taking full advantage of the computing power provided by IaaS.
The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center has just announced that they will bring Matthew Trunnell onto their staff as CIO. In his role as CIO, Trunnell mentions that the will help ditch much of the legacy software used within the research facility and make the transition into cloud.
Clint Boulton from the Wall Street Journal says that Trunnell’s main objective in his new role is to “accommodate advancements in research informatics, particularly precision medicine, which involves the human genome sequencing of tumors and Big Data analytics to inform better patient care.”
Trunnell certainly has the credentials to take on such a sophisticated task. In the past, Trunnell has served as CIO of Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. In comments provided in the WSJ, Trunnell mentions that across the board, cancer research facilities are outgrowing their current architechures, making cloud the perfect compliment for the next generation of cancer research.
As for which cloud infrastructure will Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center will use, Trunnel mentions that he is currently evaluating options from Microsoft and AWS.
Trunnell comments, ” Working with data scientists at places like Microsoft and Amazon has a lot of potential to help move our research capabilities forward.”
What are your thoughts on cloud being used to fight cancer? Tell us in the comments section below.
