ABSTRAKIn this paper, five contemporary scalable systems to support medical research teams are presented. Their functionalities extend from heterogeneous unstructured data acquisition through large scale data storing, to on the fly analyzing by using robust methods. Such kinds of systems can be useful in the development of new medical procedures and recommendation rules for decision support systems. A short description of each of them is provided. Further, a set of the most important features is selected, and a comparison based on it is performed. The need for high performance computing is emphasized. A general discussion how to improve the existing solutions or develop new ones in the future is also presented.