Oncology Workflow — EU FP7 Integrate (2011–2014) and EURECA (2012–2015)
Integrate and EURECA were EU Framework Programme 7 projects focused on semantic interoperability for clinical data across European healthcare infrastructure. The application: oncology workflow tools along the entire data pathway — both in clinical practice (patient and trial screening) and in analysis and trial preparation (cohort analysis, trial feasibility studies) — connecting REST services with clinical databases across institutions in multiple countries.
Architecture work
The core challenge was federated identity and delegated authorisation across institutions that each maintained their own patient data under their own governance. The architecture used a semantic interoperability layer to allow clinical workflow tools to operate consistently across heterogeneous backend systems — without requiring data to be centralised.
The clinical tools covered: patient screening, trial eligibility assessment, hospital trial reporting, cohort analysis and trial feasibility studies. Each had distinct workflow requirements and distinct stakeholder groups (clinicians, trial coordinators, hospital administrators, researchers).
The workflow tools started from a conceptual visual framework, translated into a working prototype that allowed early stage evaluation. After initial evaluations, the concepts were taken forward in a set of workflow applications with a PDEng student and an engineering team of 3.
Evaluation
The systems were evaluated with clinical practitioners from oncology hospitals in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Italy, and at dedicated test events with oncologists from Europe, the US and Brazil.
Credentials demonstrated
EU FP7 programme delivery, semantic interoperability architecture, federated clinical workflows, multi-institution deployment, clinical practitioner evaluation.
References
EURECA: cordis.europa.eu/project/id/288048
Note: CORDIS shows Philips Research as the participant organisation.