Ensuring Quality Standards and Reproducible Research for Data Analysis Services in Oncology: A Cooperative Service Model

Modern molecular high-throughput devices, e.g., next-generation sequencing, have transformed medical research. Resulting data sets are usually high-dimensional on a genomic-scale providing multi-factorial information from intertwined molecular and cellular activities of genes and their products. This genomics-revolution installed precision medicine offering breathtaking opportunities for patient's diagnosis and treatment. However, due to the speed of these developments the quality standards of the involved data analyses are lacking behind, as exemplified by the infamous Duke Saga. In this paper, we argue in favor of a two-stage cooperative serve model that couples data generation and data analysis in the most beneficial way from the perspective of a patient to ensure data analysis quality standards including reproducible research.