HealthGrids in Health Informatics: A Taxonomy

Abstract

Healthcare is a vast domain encapsulating not only multiple sub-domains or sub-sectors but also many diverse operations and logistics within each sub-sector. This diversity needs to be handled in a systematic and well-characterized manner in order to maintain consistency of various healthcare tasks. Integration of health information systems within each healthcare sub-sectors is crucial for ubiquitous access and sharing of information. The emerging technology of HealthGrids holds the promise to successfully integrate health information systems and various healthcare entities onto a common, globally shared and easily accessible platform. Many different types of HealthGrids exist but there lacks a taxonomy to classify them into a hierarchical order. This chapter presents a well-characterized taxonomy of different types of HealthGrid and classifies them into four major types, namely BioGrid, MediGrid, PharmaGrid and CareGrid. Each of these HealthGrids possesses dedicated features and functionalities. The proposed taxonomy serves to better understand the realtionship among various HealthGrid types and would lay a basis for future research.