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SPIN will use Internet technology and peer-to-peer architecture to create a virtual database of archived specimens that exist at different hospitals. When fully
developed, SPIN will allow approved researchers to conduct quick searches - not much longer than a Google™ search - of tissue specimen data from multiple hospitals while allowing those hospitals to maintain local control of their own data and samples.
There are several challenges to creating this resource: patient privacy must be protected, hospital computers operating on different software must be able to communicate with each other, and the same types of data in pathology reports must be coded the same way regardless of their hospital of origin.
NCI is addressing the technical challenges as it creates a test SPIN with hospitals in Boston, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, and Los Angeles. To protect patient privacy, test records will not include patient identifiers. NCI will develop a tiered permission plan, designed to allow broad access to aggregate data, researcher access to de-identified data records, and access to summarized de-identified reports and even de-identified tissue blocks for researchers with Institutional Review Board approval to conduct SPIN collaborative projects.
If SPIN proves feasible, NCI hopes to expand the network, linking researchers with the rich resource of tissue samples located in hospitals around the country.
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