HIV-K: An integrative knowledge base for semantic integration of AIDS-related malignancy data and treatment outcomes

Technological innovations such as web services and collaborative Grid platforms like caGrid can create opportunities to converge the worlds of health care and clinical research, by facilitating access and integration of HIV-related malignancy clinical and outcomes data at more sophisticated, semantic levels. At the same time, large numbers of randomized clinical trial and outcomes data on AIDS-defining malignancies (ADM) and non-AIDS-defining malignancies (nADM) have been produced during the last few years. There is still much work to do, though, on obtaining clear conclusions from the integration of such information. This is a white paper on work in progress from Emory University's HIV/AIDS related malignancy data integrative knowledge base project (HIV-K). We are working to increase the understanding of available clinical trial data and outcomes of ADM such as lymphoma, as well as nADM such as anal cancer, Hodgkin lymphoma, or liver cancer. Our hypothesis is that, by creating prototypes of tools for semantics-enabled integrative knowledge bases for HIV/AIDS-related malignancy data, we will facilitate the identification of patterns and potential new overall evidence, as well as the linking of integrated data and results to registries of interest.