The Biomedical Computing Technology Information Center (BCTIC) sharing programs, data, and interface designs

In response to a recognized need to facilitate computing technology transfer in biomedicine, the Biomedical Computing Technology Information Center (BCTIC) was established by the Division of Biomedical and Environmental Research (DBER) of the Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA) at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in July of 1975. BCTIC forged ahead into the tasks of designing guidelines and procedures, acquisition and packaging of computer codes, data, and interface designs; building a bibliographic data base; and maintaining a directory of the user community. This paper presents the problems BCTIC has set out to solve, describes its functions, and categorically relates its functions to the stated problems. It also gives a progress report on BCTIC's developmental phase, and takes a look to the future of BCTIC as a national technology resource in biomedical computing.