Informatics

Abstract

In early 1994 the Children's Cancer Group (CCG), a cooperative pediatric oncology research group with 115 member institutions and more than 2800 clinical and laboratory scientists, nurses, and research associates throughout North America and Australia, became part of the Internet community through the establishment of a Web site. CCG biology and clinical research are conducted at geographically dispersed laboratories and institutions which are coordinated from a central operations center located in Arcadia, California. Cooperative group functions which are centrally managed include statistical analysis, data management, study development, administration, publications, quality control, and other support functions. Traditional methods of communication and information exchange were unsatisfactory because of high cost and were not likely to be successful in managing the diverse data and communication requirements of a distributed research environment, such as the CCG. The Internet provides CCG with a means to rapidly exchange information, distribute up-to-date clinical protocols, and connect a community of diverse computing environments. CCG is now rapidly standardizing on the Web as the enabling technology for promulgating many types of information to its member institutions and physicians. The Web site used by CCG was developed and is maintained by the National Childhood Cancer Foundation (NCCF) and can be accessed from a Web browser by entering the Web address http://www.nccf.org/. The NCCF/CCG Web contains a wide range of childhood cancer information, stories of children cured of cancer, and descriptions of cutting-edge CCG research projects. These materials are of interest to physicians, parents of young cancer patients, cancer survivors, and anyone with an interest in childhood cancer. As Web technology continues to improve, the CCG, will investigate the feasibility of implementing remote data entry and data query capabilities which would increase our effectiveness in supporting research on the cancers of infants, children and young adults with cancer.