Intel makes pitch to become a hub for cancer data sharing

Intel ($INTC) has unveiled its pitch to become the organization that pulls cancer data out of silos. The semiconductor giant has spent the past two years working on the problem with Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), bringing it to the point at which it is ready to open up the platform to other organizations.

Management at Intel expect two other groups to sign up to use the platform, now dubbed the Collaborative Cancer Cloud (CCC), next year, moving the firm closer to its ambition of supporting a global medical data analysis system. Intel is pitching CCC as a platform-as-a-service solution to the problem of how to realize the benefits of large-scale data sharing without compromising the privacy and security of information about patients. As OSHU sees it, such concerns are stopping research and healthcare organizations from tapping into the power data.

"[Researchers] are hesitant to share data for security concerns" OHSU Knight Cancer Institute Director Dr. Brian Druker said at an Intel conference attended by Fortune. Intel has tried to offset these concerns by having the CCC create a secure virtual machine, TechRadar reports. This virtual machine will support the sharing of information, after which the data will be wiped. The idea is that each user of the CCC will retain control of their own patients' data, while contributing to--and benefiting from--the growth of the shared pool of information.

Intel is far from alone in aspiring to help researchers mine cancer data to improve treatment but few can match its tech credentials. The team behind CCC is also looking outside of Intel's walls in an attempt to make the platform a success, notably by open-sourcing the code. Intel hopes this will grow the pool of developers that work on CCC, leading to it becoming interoperable with different cloud systems.

- read Intel's blog
- here's Fortune's article
- check out TechRadar's take
- and The Inquirer's piece