Getting Connected with Dr. Joel Saltz
From Bioinformatics to Medicine and Back
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Joel Saltz, M.D., Ph.D.
Courtesy: The Ohio State University Medical Center
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Joel Saltz, M.D., Ph.D., loves a challenge, and it’s his endless desire to overcome the next hurdle that has led him on his journey from computer science, to medicine, to biomedical informatics.
First, his love of math and physics led to developing computational interfaces for a biochemistry laboratory and to a combined M.D.-Ph.D. in computer science from Duke University. During his Ph.D. studies, Saltz was attracted to parallel computing because he saw the potential and power of using computational science to help solve biological problems faster than most.
“I remember thinking at the time that here was an area where high-end computing could solve large-scale problems using parallel processing methods to make a difference in medical diagnoses and outcomes,” said Saltz. “This intersection of medicine and informatics always intrigued me, and ever since that time, I have worked to develop solutions for connecting researchers and their complementary research through parallel computing systems.”
Saltz currently serves as Professor and Chair of Biomedical Informatics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine and Davis Chair of Cancer Research in the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center. Saltz’s research group leads caGrid development, a role that grew out of his attraction to caBIG™ as a transformational initiative.
“As you can imagine, when we heard that Ken Buetow and Peter Covitz were putting together the caBIG™ effort, we were excited about the prospect of getting involved in the project,” said Saltz. “We reached out to Ken and Peter, and we all quickly decided to collaborate on caGrid. To oversimplify, caGrid was formed by synthesizing caCore (from NCICB), Mobius (from Ohio State), and Globus (from Argonne).”
Leading the caGrid Revolution
Saltz’s group has been active in developing the security layers that are essential for caGrid to ensure patient privacy and proper use of shared data resources.
“Joel Saltz has always played a pivotal role in shaping the short and long term vision of caGrid, as well as continually working to broaden the applicability and adoption of caGrid to other communities not yet engaged in caBIG™,” said Scott Oster, caGrid chief architect and co-director of the Software Research Institute in the Department of Biomedical Informatics at the Ohio State University Medical Center.
In addition to the role he plays in the continued development of caGrid, Saltz maintains many other roles within caBIG™. Saltz’s group has played a major role in the In Vivo Imaging Workspace, a natural fit given his medical background. Working closely with many clinical cooperative groups, his group has developed crucial caGrid extensions for use in cooperative imaging trials. He coordinates efforts at other caBIG™ member institutions by serving as the Architecture Workspace lead and as a liaison in the In Vivo Imaging Workspace, and he is involved in several strategic planning initiatives.
caBIG™ as a Catalyst for Change in the Cancer Research Community
Saltz views the caBIG™ initiative as a catalyst for change in the culture of cancer research. He predicts that caBIG™ will have a significant impact on three broad areas of research:
- Cooperative, multi-institute clinical research—collecting and analyzing samples and data from many distributed research centers;
- “Deep science”—studies examining the molecular/biochemical/genetic bases of cancer that require the integration of disparate data sets into a cohesive whole; and
- Discovery research—finding all relevant information on a specific gene of interest.
In multi-institute clinical research, for example, Saltz described how clinical pathologists evaluate a lung computerized tomography (CT) scan for lung nodules that may suggest the presence of cancer. By linking physicians in different geographical locations through caGrid to allow a simultaneous evaluation of the same scan, a more accurate and standardized diagnosis can be achieved.
”caGrid allows sharing of images, algorithms, and human analysis data, which, when analyzed together, result in higher quality clinical trials with more accurate conclusions,” explained Saltz. “As inter-observer variability is decreased and clinical studies are better controlled and standardized, validity of the research data will be strengthened, ultimately resulting in better treatments for cancer patients.”
The Future of caBIG™
Looking down the road another ten years from now, Saltz expects that caGrid and related technologies will continue to change the way science is performed. Large-scale cooperative efforts or “big science” using caGrid and interoperable databases and software tools will be the way in which a comprehensive understanding of cancer mechanisms and cancer treatments will be achieved.
“The goal is to perform cancer research differently so there’s a difference in what you discover,” said Saltz. “A difference that will ultimately translate into improved patient outcomes.”
Learn More:
- Saltz J, Oster S, Hastings S, Langella S, Kurc T, Sanchez W, Kher M, Manisundaram A, Shanbhag K, Covitz P. caGrid: Design and implementation of the core architecture of the cancer biomedical informatics grid. Bioinformatics. 2006 Aug 1;22(15):1910-6.
- Pan TC, Gurcan MN, Langella SA, Oster SW, Hastings SL, Sharma A, Rutt BG, Ervin DW, Kurc TM, Siddiqui KM, Saltz JH, Siegel EL. Informatics in radiology: GridCAD: grid-based computer-aided detection system. Radiographics. 2007 May-Jun;27(3):889-97.
- “The National Cancer Imaging Archive and caIMAGE: Enabling Standardization and Collaboration”, caBIG™ Links Newsletter, September 2007.
