Emory DMAP Software Support for NCI

The National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Cancer Institute (NCI), Center for Biomedical Informatics and Information Technology (CBIIT), Office of the CIO (OCIO) maintains a digital image management and analysis platform based on the Indica HALO software. NCI HALO supports researchers, external collaborators, and relevant NCI staff with the tools, collaborative workspaces, security protocols, and data and image management capabilities needed to manage, process and analyze a diversity of image types.

Frequently, Investigators need to bring in large slide image collections from outside collaborators, many of which contain PII. In 2023, extensive market research was conducted to identify an approach for bulk di-identification that could be seamlessly integrated into the NCI HALO environment. It was determined that the open source Digital Slide Archive software (DSA), developed by Emory University with funding from NCI, could be adapted to provide bulk de-identification capabilities.

A contract was established with Emory to develop custom de-identification workflows and integrate the customized software into NCI’s HALO environment. Going forward, additional support is needed to optimize existing workflows, add capabilities to support new file types, and maintain the integration of DSA in the NCI HALO environment.