Federated web-accessible clinical data management within an extensible neuroimaging database

Abstract

Managing vast datasets collected throughout multiple clinical imaging communities has become critical with the ever increasing and diverse nature of datasets. Development of data management infrastructure is further complicated by technical and experimental advances that drive modifications to existing protocols and acquisition of new types of research data to be incorporated into existing data management systems. In this paper, an extensible data management system for clinical neuroimaging studies is introduced: The Human Clinical Imaging Database (HID) and Toolkit. The database schema is constructed to support the storage of new data types without changes to the underlying schema. The complex infrastructure allows management of experiment data, such as image protocol and behavioral task parameters, as well as subject-specific data, including demographics, clinical assessments, and behavioral task performance metrics. Of significant interest, embedded clinical data entry and management tools enhance both consistency of data reporting and automatic entry of data into the database. The Clinical Assessment Layout Manager (CALM) allows users to create on-line data entry forms for use within and across sites, through which data is pulled into the underlying database via the generic clinical assessment management engine (GAME). Importantly, the system is designed to operate in a distributed environment, serving both human users and client applications in a service-oriented manner. Querying capabilities use a built-in multi-database parallel query builder/result combiner, allowing web-accessible queries within and across multiple federated databases. The system along with its documentation is open-source and available from the Neuroimaging Informatics Tools and Resource Clearinghouse (NITRC) site.

Fig. 1

Experiment-subject-visit management data model

Fig. 2

Assessment management data model

Fig. 3

Extended tuple data model

Fig. 4

Analysis workflow/provenance data model

Fig. 5

High-level architecture of HID application/framework

Fig. 6

Screenshot of CALM tool

Fig. 7

Lifecycle of on-line clinical assessment forms generation/usage process

Fig. 8

HID application web interface screens for user/database/application configuration and end user query building

Fig. 9

HID application web interface example screens. a) image/clinical data download shopping cart b) download job monitoring, c) subject data viewing d) assessment data entry

Fig. 10

FBIRN processing workflow using HID application

Fig. 11

Execution times for local single assessment queries

Fig. 12

Execution times for multi-site single assessment queries initiated from the local site

Fig. 13

Execution times for local multi assessment queries

Fig. 14

Execution times for multi-site multi assessment queries initiated from the local site