An open web services - based framework for data mining of biomedical image data

Mining of biomedical image data is a complex procedure that requires several processing phases, such as data acquisition, preprocessing (e.g., image enhancement, color processing), feature extraction and classification. Tools exist that provide each one of these functions individually, however proper integration is required for complex image analysis tasks. This paper presents an open framework based on Web Services that provides access to tools and methods for data mining of biomedical image data. The described tools implemented as Web Services can be directly integrated to the TAVERNA or a similar workflow management platform, allowing their integration in several workflows corresponding to different image processing pipelines. Proper authentication and encryption mechanisms have been utilized in order to guarantee the appropriate security. A case study of classification of skin lesion images is presented to demonstrate the functionality of the proposed framework.