At the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) Annual Meeting, almost 60,000 imaging professionals had the opportunity to hear about the functional benefits of a caBIG® suite of tools that address their needs, such as uniform information to simplify image searches; easily created programs to analyze how tumors change in shape and size; workstations that allow researchers to view images remotely; and the ability to search for, access, and navigate (e.g., zoom in and out) within images stored in an online data repository.
"caBIG® is the response to what researchers like me have hoped for, for a long time," said Dr. Max Wintermark, Director of the NeuroCardioVascular Imaging Lab at the University of California, San Francisco.
At the meeting, caBIG® Imaging community leaders and product developers led live demonstrations of four tools that are available for immediate use in research and clinical settings. Additionally, the team provided the imaging community with information about ongoing tool adoption and the next phase of development efforts.
"We consistently hear from practitioners who want to work with these tools," noted Eliot L. Siegel, MD, professor and vice-chair of the department of diagnostic radiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore; and the caBIG® Imaging Workspace Lead. "This was our chance to demonstrate the real world applications of these resources directly to end users and decision makers, and to provide hands-on education about the caBIG® Imaging products."
Seeing a Challenge...and Imagining the Solution
The caBIG® Imaging Workspace was first established in 2005 to identify and address challenges in imaging using caBIG® technology. The group identified major areas of need, including standards to evaluate and annotate images (especially for evaluation of tumor burden and response); and a mechanism to easily and securely share images and image analysis and visualization algorithms across the cancer community. The tools are coming of age at a crucial time, since imaging plays an increasingly important role in validating research and creating personalized health profiles.
"We have created a core, open-source product line that is powered by caBIG®-and that is mature enough to be used now in real world clinical and research settings," said Dr. Siegel. "In the last six months, we've seen a major breakthrough from the 'demonstration' phase to the 'use phase,' and are now able to provide real support for users to overcome data management challenges."
One major challenge currently being addressed by caBIG® imaging tools is that of consistency across different clinical and laboratory settings, since different machines read images with a level of variability that can affect clinical decision making. The eXtensible Imaging Platform (XIP) is a toolkit that can be used to build a workstation that allows multiple institutions to view images without the potentially wide variance that often occurs when using different types of workstations.
When asked how the caBIG® imaging tools will address challenges in his work, Dr. Wintermark replied, "caBIG® can house multiple types of data, whether they are imaging or clinically oriented. Also, caBIG® has been designed to aggregate data from multiple sites, to appear as an integrated research tool set or large database, while individual resources remain under the control of the originating organization. This strategy of organizing and providing distributed access to locally managed tools and data represents a more scalable alternative to centralized, large-scale repositories and systems."
Dr. Wintermark also noted that caBIG® tools and underlying code are freely available for use or modification, so that caBIG® implementation does not require users to purchase specialized hardware. This approach minimizes the up-front coast associated with a center's decision to participate in a caBIG®-based research system.
To read more about Dr. Wintermark's vision for caBIG®, click here
caBIG® Imaging Tools Are Now Available OnlineFor the first time, the core product line of caBIG® imaging tools will be available online with downloadable software. As part of this rollout, the Imaging Workspace on the caBIG® community website will undergo extensive updates, providing increased information and new resources, including training materials and recorded demonstrations, to assist individuals interested in adopting or adapting caBIG® in vivo imaging tools.
"This will be an important resource for anyone interested in using caBIG® imaging tools to address challenges in their work," noted Paul Mulhern, who coordinates activities across the workspace. "Users will now have instant access to the downloadable products, along with information to help them put this technology to work in research and clinical settings."
As part of the updates, new landing pages will be launched for four of the core caBIG® imaging products-the Annotation Imaging Mark-up (AIM), eXtensible Imaging Platform (XIP), Imaging Middleware/Virtual PACS, and caMicroscope.
Additional caBIG® tools can be viewed online here.
caBIG® Imaging Tools at a Glance
The National Cancer Imaging Archive (NCIA) - The NCIA is a searchable repository that combines in vivo cancer images with clinical and genomic data. NCIA provides the cancer research community, industry, and academia with public access to DICOM images, image markup, annotations, and rich metadata. Practically speaking, this tool enables the development of imaging resources that can lead to improved clinical decision support, accelerated decision-making, and enhanced quantitative imaging assessment of drug response.
Middleware/Virtual PACS - The Imaging Core Middleware is a set of tools, libraries, and applications designed to provide grid-based, federated access to existing DICOM-based data repositories and analytical resources. Further, Middleware supports interoperability between caGrid and picture archiving and communication systems (PACS), allowing users to interact with multiple image data resources as though the information was stored on a centralized system.
Annotations and Imaging Markup (AIM) - The purpose of AIM is to develop a standard for medical image annotation and markup for images used in the research space, and in particular, the image based cancer clinical trial. As this standard matures it will be made suitable for use in the annotation and markup of all medical images used for clinical and other research tasks. This will ensure that knowledge captured in annotations and mark-ups can be queried and accessed for future use.
eXtensible Imaging Platform (XIP) - XIP is a free and open-source platform that supports image analysis and visualization, and contains a "virtual toolkit" for rapidly developing a medical imaging workstation with extensible and reusable applications.. The XIP will facilitate easier access to specific applications at multiple sites, which will simplify clinical trials and increase the uniformity of imaging and analysis, thereby advancing the use of imaging as a biomarker in pharmaceutical and other clinical and research trials.
caMicroscope - caMicroscope is grid-enabled software that allows clinicians to view large pathology images remotely. Using this tool, clinicians and researchers can search for and access images stored in a data repository on the grid; submit new images to the repository; and navigate within the stored images (e.g., zoom in and out).
