Health Information and the Next Generation Internet

Michael J. Ackerman, Ph.D.

Assistant Director for High Performance Computing and Communications
National Library of Medicine, NIH


In 1991, the President's Office of Science and Technology Policy
announced a multi-agency High Performance Computing and Communications
(HPCC) program to stimulate the development of advanced information
technologies. During the late 1990's, the program focused on the Next
Generation Internet (NGI). In 2001 this program became known as the
Information Technology Research and Development (ITRD) program. A major
part of this program is the development of test bed applications. The
National Library of Medicine's (NLM) program has developed, demonstrated
and evaluated the utility of HPCC technologies for health care through
both intramural and sponsored contract research. NLM has funded testbed
networks for linking hospitals, clinics, doctors' offices, medical
schools, medical libraries, and universities to enable health care
providers and researchers to demonstrate and test the use of HPCC
technologies for telemedicine and other health related applications.
Recently the NLM announced an opportunity for network dependent
healthcare, health education or research applications which demonstrate
one or more of the following technologies: Applications demonstrating
self-scaling technology; Applications utilizing self-optimizing
end-to-end network aware real-time technology and/or middleware;
Applications dependent on wireless technology; Nomadic technology
application and/or applications using geographic information systems
(GIS) techniques; Applications which involve advanced authentication
methodologies, e.g., biometrics or smartcards.