The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Engineering (NIBIB) has awarded the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) $1.27 million to fund research by the Quantitative Imaging Biomarkers Alliance (QIBA). The alliance was founded by RSNA in 2007 to engage researchers, healthcare professionals, and industry leaders in advancing quantitative imaging. QIBA has received funding from NIBIB the last 3 years, including a 2013 contract for $1.25 million.
“We are honored and gratified that NIBIB continues to recognize the importance of objective, quantitative results from imaging studies to patient care, and provides ongoing support for QIBA’s foundational work in this effort,” said Daniel C. Sullivan, MD, QIBA chair.
QIBA defines quantitative imaging as follows:
Quantitative imaging is the extraction of quantifiable features from medical images for the assessment of normal or the severity, degree of change, or status of a disease, injury, or chronic condition relative to normal. Quantitative imaging includes the development, standardization, and optimization of anatomical, functional, and molecular imaging acquisition protocols, data analyses, display methods, and reporting structures. These features permit the validation of accurately and precisely obtained image-derived metrics with anatomically and physiologically relevant parameters, including treatment response and outcome, and the use of such metrics in research and patient care.
The alliance is aimed at increasing the use of biomarkers in clinical trials and practice and collaborates to develop and test consistent and valid quantitative imaging results across imaging platforms. QIBA also works to accelerate the development and adoption of hardware and software standards needed to achieve accurate and reproducible quantitative results from imaging methods.
The funds will support QIBA activities, including the development of a Quantitative Imaging Data Warehouse, research to characterize the sources of bias and achievable precision associated with quantitative imaging, and efforts to further develop and test phantoms and digital reference objects.
For more information, visit QIBA.
