Information and communication technologies (ICTS) for biobanking and oncology research: Analysis, support scenarios and a case study

Human Tissue Banks are key for Oncological research and practice. Biobanking processes cross many care departments and have a number of stakeholders, often carrying different objectives: quality assurance and process efficiency are hard to garrison. Key issues in a biobanking project are: dedicated organization, process control, completeness of clinical information on samples, integrated Information and Communication Technologies. Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori is an oncologic research and treatment institution in Milan (Italy). Our project started in October 2007 aiming at revising the whole tissue collection process (from Surgery to Anatomical pathology assessment, to analysis and storage in the Biobank), developing a clinical biobank management system collecting structured data on cases, and designing an RFId-based system able to track the time- and temperature-sensitive specimens' flow. Now that go-live has begun, technological and - above all - organizational challenges of the project can be discussed in detail. We hope other organizations will appreciate our efforts and are willing to apply a biobanking network as soon as possible.