Oncogrid: A proposal of grid infrastructure for the establishment of a national health information system on childhood cancer

In Brazil, a country of continental proportions, law requires that health institutions directly involved in the cancer treatment in the country have to register and consolidate cancer patients´ data. This information is important for the management and evaluation of the cancer treatment, and for the definition of public policies. In this work we propose the use of a high-performance computational infrastructure, based on grid computing, to ease and accelerate the consolidation of the remotely distributed patients´ records in these institutions. In particular, we present a case study of implementation of a tool for patients´ survival estimation based on the Kaplan-Meier method. We also discuss the issues related to architecture, implementation and integration, as well as the benefits and prospects for the use of this infrastructure on the establishment of a national health information system.