TRIAD: The Translational Research Informatics and Data Management Grid
TRIAD is the middleware that addresses informatics challenges by enabling the creation of a scalable, secure, and knowledge-anchored data sharing environment, building upon the robust caGrid (the underlying service oriented infrastructure that supports caBIG) that was initially designed for the National Cancer Institute's caBIG (cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid) program. In the past decade, the field of informatics has undergone rapid change. New technologies such as grid computing and knowledge-anchored data, combined with major funding and growing community thrusts designed to break down institutional boundaries in order to create a richer research and clinical environment (e.g., caBIG, BIRN and CTSA), have led to new ways to combine data and services within and across institutional boundaries, resulting in increased speed, efficiency and outcome of clinical and research efforts spanning the fields of medicine.