Grid-Enabled Measures (GEM) is an initiative of the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

(NIH)

National Cancer Institute The National Cancer Institute (NCI) coordinates the United States National Cancer Program and is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is one of eleven agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. ...

(NCI). GEM is a web-based

collaborative Collaboration (from Latin ''com-'' "with" + ''laborare'' "to labor", "to work") is the process of two or more people, entities or organizations working together to complete a task or achieve a goal. Collaboration is similar to cooperation. Most ...

platform and

database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases sp ...

enabling

research Research is "creativity, creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular att ...

ers to exchange harmonized data about behavioral

construct Construct, Constructs or constructs may refer to: * Construct (information technology), a collection of logic components forming an interactive agent or environment ** Language construct * ''Construct'' (album), a 2013 album by Dark Tranquillity ...

s, measures, and datasets. GEM has two goals: # "Promote use of standardized measures which are tied to theoretically based constructs" and # "Facilitate sharing of harmonized data resulting from the use of standardized measures". GEM has been proposed as part of the solution to the problem of tracking constructs in electronic medical records and for control of construct proliferation. GEM has been recognized in the academic literature as an instantiation of cyberinfrastructure for research standardization, a tool for dialogue and consensus building, a tool to facilitate use of linked data and interoperable data systems, and in case reports of expert panel measure categorizations. The GEM database, uses “web 2.0” functionality to solicit, comment, vet, and select measures from the behavioral and population science communities in open and transparent ways. Scientists are taking advantage of information sharing and collaboration made possible by networking technologies. This new phenomenon is referred to by some as

Science 2.0 Science 2.0 is a suggested new approach to science that uses information-sharing and collaboration made possible by network technologies. It is similar to the open research and open science movements and is inspired by Web 2.0 technologies. Scienc ...

. As Science 2.0 gains momentum in the science community, giving a glimpse of future scientific publishing and data sharing, the GEM database is distinct in that it uses these functionalities to help scientists facilitate discovery in a massively connected and participative environment.

References

External links

* {{authority control National Institutes of Health Cancer research Institutional repository software