The Shared Pathology Informatics Network (SPIN) originally was funded by the National Cancer Institute to link the vast collections of human specimens that are infrequently shared for cancer research. SPIN sets forth the institutional agreements and distributed database architecture to grant institutional autonomy and protect patient privacy according to HIPAA regulations. SPIN has successfully completed a feasibility study involving seven independent medical centers sharing millions of human specimens.
Using a peer-to-peer architecture, institutions become SPIN members (nodes) by securing institutional review board (IRB) approvals and deploying the SPIN software. At any time, an institution can withdraw from the network without leaving their data behind or disabling the network. SPIN nodes can serve as peers or supernodes to query local databases or networks of child nodes, respectively.
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