Multi-Institutional Breast Cancer Detection Using a Secure On-Boarding Service for Distributed Analytics

Applied Sciences, vol. 12, pp. 4336

Abstract

The constant upward movement of data-driven medicine as a valuable option to enhance daily clinical practice has brought new challenges for data analysts to get access to valuable but sensitive data due to privacy considerations. One solution for most of these challenges are Distributed Analytics (DA) infrastructures, which are technologies fostering collaborations between healthcare institutions by establishing a privacy-preserving network for data sharing. However, in order to participate in such a network, a lot of technical and administrative prerequisites have to be made, which could pose bottlenecks and new obstacles for non-technical personnel during their deployment. We have identified three major problems in the current state-of-the-art. Namely, the missing compliance with FAIR data principles, the automation of processes, and the installation. In this work, we present a seamless on-boarding workflow based on a DA reference architecture for data sharing institutions to address these problems. The on-boarding service manages all technical configurations and necessities to reduce the deployment time. Our aim is to use well-established and conventional technologies to gain acceptance through enhanced ease of use. We evaluate our development with six institutions across Germany by conducting a DA study with open-source breast cancer data, which represents the second contribution of this work. We find that our on-boarding solution lowers technical barriers and efficiently deploys all necessary components and is, therefore, indeed an enabler for collaborative data sharing.

Authors 13

1. Sascha Welten corresponding Aachen Information Systems and Database Technology Research Group

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Information Systems and Database Technology Research Group, RWTH Aachen University, 52062 Aachen, Germany

2. Lars Hempel

   Hochschule Mittweida · University Hospital Leipzig · Leipzig University

   Affiliation as printed

   Database Group, Mittweida University of Applied Sciences, 09648 Mittweida, Germany

   Department of Medical Data Science, Leipzig University Medical Center, 04107 Leipzig, Germany

   Institute for Medical Informatics, Statistics and Epidemiology, Leipzig University, 04107 Leipzig, Germany

3. Masoud Abedi

   Hochschule Mittweida · University Hospital Leipzig · Leipzig University

   Affiliation as printed

   Database Group, Mittweida University of Applied Sciences, 09648 Mittweida, Germany

   Department of Medical Data Science, Leipzig University Medical Center, 04107 Leipzig, Germany

   Institute for Medical Informatics, Statistics and Epidemiology, Leipzig University, 04107 Leipzig, Germany

4. Yongli Mou Aachen Information Systems and Database Technology Research Group

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Information Systems and Database Technology Research Group, RWTH Aachen University, 52062 Aachen, Germany

5. Mehrshad Jaberansary Aachen Information Systems and Database Technology Research Group

   University of Cologne · University Hospital Cologne · RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Information Systems and Database Technology Research Group, RWTH Aachen University, 52062 Aachen, Germany

   Institute for Medical Informatics, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, University of Cologne, 50674 Cologne, Germany

6. Laurenz Neumann Aachen Information Systems and Database Technology Research Group

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Information Systems and Database Technology Research Group, RWTH Aachen University, 52062 Aachen, Germany

7. Sven Weber Aachen Information Systems and Database Technology Research Group

   Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology · RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Techniques, 53757 St. Augustin, Germany

   Information Systems and Database Technology Research Group, RWTH Aachen University, 52062 Aachen, Germany

8. Kais Tahar

   Universitätsmedizin Göttingen · University of Göttingen

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Medical Informatics, University Medical Center Göttingen, 37075 Göttingen, Germany

9. Yeliz Üçer Yediel Aachen Information Systems and Database Technology Research Group

   Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology · RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Techniques, 53757 St. Augustin, Germany

   Information Systems and Database Technology Research Group, RWTH Aachen University, 52062 Aachen, Germany

10. Matthias Löbe

    Leipzig University

    Affiliation as printed

    Institute for Medical Informatics, Statistics and Epidemiology, Leipzig University, 04107 Leipzig, Germany

11. Stefan Decker Aachen Information Systems and Database Technology Research Group

    Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology · RWTH Aachen University

    Affiliation as printed

    Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Techniques, 53757 St. Augustin, Germany

    Information Systems and Database Technology Research Group, RWTH Aachen University, 52062 Aachen, Germany

12. Oya Beyan

    University of Cologne · Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology · University Hospital Cologne

    Affiliation as printed

    Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Techniques, 53757 St. Augustin, Germany

    Institute for Medical Informatics, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, University of Cologne, 50674 Cologne, Germany

13. Toralf Kirsten

    Hochschule Mittweida · University Hospital Leipzig · Leipzig University

    Affiliation as printed

    Database Group, Mittweida University of Applied Sciences, 09648 Mittweida, Germany

    Department of Medical Data Science, Leipzig University Medical Center, 04107 Leipzig, Germany

    Institute for Medical Informatics, Statistics and Epidemiology, Leipzig University, 04107 Leipzig, Germany