IT - Computer Science And Cancer

This topic is kind of way off-topic, but I need ideas on this.

I think we all have a friend, relative, or colleague who is suffering from cancer. We all lost someone because of this ugly disease.

We're all computer professionals here, and as far as I know, we don't have a direct impact on the medical field. There's not much we can do to help those who are working hard to find a cure for this ugly disease. I hope I'm wrong.

I'm writing this thread to ask for ideas on how we, as IT professionals, can help cancer patients. Is there way we can participate in cancer research? Or we can only donate to cancer research centers?

What about those who work in bioinformatics or health care? Is there anything we can do?

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Comments

ptilsen

Folding@Home is a good example. They are always looking for more CPU cycles, and we have access to them.

Zentraedi

Folding@Home or one of the other distributed computing initiatives might be a good idea.
Check out this: World Community Grid - Home

Back in my university days(~10 years ago), I was involved with our Laboratory for Computational Genomics.
Basically, we used Linux clusters to analyze DNA for the medical researchers at the university. This directly affected and helped produce several cancer related medical papers.

If you've got good Linux clustering, C, and Perl skills, and also live by a university that does a lot of medical research, then see if you can part time work for them.

paul78

Back in the early 90's, I worked for a university and one project that I assigned was to setup Ultrix-based workstations which were used to train doctors to recognize cancers in the brain. It was an early imaging system which allowed for 3D manipulation and virtual disection of brain cross-sections.

I do think that in any profession there is the ability to impact society for the better.

And as IT professionals - there are lots different ways that we are contribute our skills and talents to directly impact medical field and even cancer research. Some examples may include working for a pharma that does drug research, working in hospital supporting IT, working at a university (like above), or medical technology.

A good friend of mine from college used to volunteer his time writing imaging software for a hospital to help doctors create digital images of x-rays. His mother was an ER nurse at the hospital.

Another good friend of mine today works for a company that develops medical imaging technology - he works on network protocols that are used to quickly transfer field images of trauma victims to the ER so that doctors can start diagnosis before the patient arrives.

The medical field today is very computer-driven and people with the right motivation and skills can probably find numerous ways to directly contribute.

As for myself, I wish that I had stayed working for a university or worked in pharma or medical technology. I work in financial services and I do often think about changing industries.

msteinhilber

A lot of cancers could be cured through a simple natural plant that is currently illegal, don't expect that to become used very widespread until the pharmaceutical industry can profit billions from it though.

UnixGuy

So to sum up the ideas presented so far: The only way possible is by joining a university that does cancer research? or HPC/Clustering that's used for medical purposes?

UnixGuy

msteinhilber wrote: »

A lot of cancers could be cured through a simple natural plant that is currently illegal, don't expect that to become used very widespread until the pharmaceutical industry can profit billions from it though.

Really? So if I know a cancer patient, how can we use natural plant? is it legal anywhere in the world?

msteinhilber

UnixGuy wrote: »

Really? So if I know a cancer patient, how can we use natural plant? is it legal anywhere in the world?

Marijuana, cannabinoids have been shown to have many positives in the fight against cancer. But it's ultimately illegal here in the states at the federal level, and while some states approve it's usage for medicinal purposes the fed's have been cracking down on dispensaries regardless. Like I said though, it's harder for the pharmaceutical companies to profit massive amounts of money if they were to begin treating people with cannabis. That and a significant amount of the profit your average oncologist earns is derived from the chemotherapy drugs used during treatment.

UnixGuy

msteinhilber wrote: »

Marijuana, cannabinoids have been shown to have many positives in the fight against cancer. But it's ultimately illegal here in the states at the federal level, and while some states approve it's usage for medicinal purposes the fed's have been cracking down on dispensaries regardless. Like I said though, it's harder for the pharmaceutical companies to profit massive amounts of money if they were to begin treating people with cannabis. That and a significant amount of the profit your average oncologist earns is derived from the chemotherapy drugs used during treatment.

I heard about such things but they're not guaranteed...this disease is ugly, I want to see an end for this !

ptilsen

I really don't think pointing out the flaws in the legal, medical, or pharmaceutical systems and how they relate to specific medical research with Marijuana are really on-topic or helpful. UnixGuy is looking for what we, specifically as IT professionals, can do to help.

I will actually agree largely with Unixguy's summary. Doing Folding, directly assisting in research, or supporting, providing, maintaining, etc. the infrastructure that supports the researchers working on the problem are the primary ways in which we can use our skills in our trade to assist in curing, treating, and eradicating cancer or any other conditions.

msteinhilber

ptilsen wrote: »

I really don't think pointing out the flaws in the legal, medical, or pharmaceutical systems and how they relate to specific medical research with Marijuana are really on-topic or helpful.

So you'd rather ignore any flaws and just steam ahead with lining the pockets of the pharmaceutical companies and the doctors that promote them? That's sound reasoning.

I spent 4 years watching my father slowly fade away from brain cancer (GBM) and enduring numerous bouts with chemo over the years as it grew back and he would go in for surgery again and for another round of radiation and chemo to follow. It made his life hell and probably ultimately killed him as a result of the poison he was being injected with (the chemo). Closer to the end there was a lot of evidence and many success stories of cancers in general being cured by cannabis and he sought to relocate to where he would be able to lawfully (at the state level at least) obtain medical marijuana since everything else was failing. That didn't happen in time, he had to go back in for another surgery and bout with radiation and chemo that finally did him in. I've been following the research and success stories for the particular kind of cancer he suffered from and there have been many survivors where prior more traditional treatments have failed them who finally found success with cannabis.

If you'd like to continue folding to feel warm and fuzzy about yourself, by all means go for it. But me, as an IT professional, will choose to help by doing what I can to not support a business that seems concerned first with profits and with success of treatment as a secondary. If you're not satisfied enough with that not being high tech enough for you as an IT pro... then I'll be sure to send a few e-mails to my representatives in addition to the snail mail I send them - how's that?

paul78

UnixGuy wrote: »

So to sum up the ideas presented so far: The only way possible is by joining a university that does cancer research? or HPC/Clustering that's used for medical purposes?

There's also technology companies out there that provide the technology to detect and fight cancer. The imaging companies for example.

Take NVIDIA for example - they actually do some good work supporting cancer research -

Breast Cancer Detection Achieves Greater Contrast

[EMAIL="Folding@home"]Folding@home[/EMAIL] was mentioned - here's a more direct research supported by NVIDIA - Compute the Cure

General Electric recently pledged 1billion over the next 5 years to develop technology for cancer - GE Launches $100M Innovation Project to Fund Breast Cancer Research - Health Care IT - News & Reviews - eWeek.com

Cancer research is largely driven by IT - take a look here - https://cabig.nci.nih.gov/ - click on the link that says for IT Professionals. Its all open-source.