title: The Global Alzheimer's Association Interactive Network.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The Global Alzheimer's Association Interactive Network (GAAIN) is consolidating the efforts of independent Alzheimer's disease data repositories around the world with the goals of revealing more insights into the causes of Alzheimer's disease, improving treatments, and designing preventative measures that delay the onset of physical symptoms.
  
  
  METHODS
  We developed a system for federating these repositories that is reliant on the tenets that (1) its participants require incentives to join, (2) joining the network is not disruptive to existing repository systems, and (3) the data ownership rights of its members are protected.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We are currently in various phases of recruitment with over 55 data repositories in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia and can presently query >250,000 subjects using GAAIN's search interfaces.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  GAAIN's data sharing philosophy, which guided our architectural choices, is conducive to motivating membership in a voluntary data sharing network.
authors: Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, Institute for Neuroimaging and Informatics, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA. Electronic address: toga@loni.usc.edu.
authors: Arthur W
authors: AW
authors: Toga
authors: Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, Institute for Neuroimaging and Informatics, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
authors: Scott C
authors: SC
authors: Neu
authors: Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, Institute for Neuroimaging and Informatics, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
authors: Priya
authors: P
authors: Bhatt
authors: Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, Institute for Neuroimaging and Informatics, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
authors: Karen L
authors: KL
authors: Crawford
authors: Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, Institute for Neuroimaging and Informatics, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
authors: Naveen
authors: N
authors: Ashish
mesh_terms: D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000628:therapy; D035843:Biomedical Research; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D019992:Databases as Topic; D014943:Global Health; D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination
keywords: Alzheimer's disease; Data sharing; Federated data repositories; GAAIN