AIDS FOR GEOGRAPHIC PATTERN RECOGNITION IN CANCER DATA

THE PRIMARY GOAL OF THIS RESEARCH IS TO DEVELOP A SPECIALIZED COMPUTER SOFTWARE TOOL TO HELP THE EPIDEMIOLOGIST EXPLORE DATA ON THE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF CANCER. IN PHASE I, WE PLAN TO COLLABORATE WITH NCI SCIENTISTS TO IDENTIFY EPIDEMIOLOGICAL QUESTIONS DIFFICULT TO ADDRESS WITH EXISTING SOFTWARE TOOLS, TO DEVELOP SPECIFIC DATA PRESENTATION TECHNIQUES IN THE CONTEXT OF OUR LASER GRAPHICS SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY, AND TO ASSESS THE VALUE OF THESE TECHNIQUES THROUGH EVALUATION BY SEVERAL INVESTIGATORS. THE MAJOR TECHNICAL INNOVATION IN THIS PROJECT IS THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEW INTERACTIVE SOFTWARE THAT CAN GENERATE HIGH-INFORMATION-DENSITY DATA DISPLAYS SPECIFICALLY TAILORED TO THE PROBLEM OF VISUALIZING PATTERNS IN THE GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION OF STATISTICAL DATA. THE MAJOR HEALTH-RELATED CONTRIBUTION IS AN INCREASE IN THE ABILITY OF THE EPIDEMIOLOGIST TO FIND CLUES TO ETIOLOGY THROUGH BETTER TOOLS FOR DETECTING AND CORRELATING PATTERNS IN THE GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION OF DISEASE INCIDENCE AND OF OTHER GEOGRAPHICALLY LINKED FACTORS. IN PHASE II, WE HOPE TO DEVELOP A PROTOTYPE PERSONAL COMPUTER SOFTWARE PRODUCT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO THE CANCER EPIDEMIOLOGY RESEARCH COMMUNITY.