RSNA announces new NIBIB funding for QIBA research

OAK BROOK, Ill. (October 2, 2014) – The Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) announced today that it has received an additional $1.27 million of funding from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) to support research by the Quantitative Imaging Biomarkers Alliance (QIBA). This marks the fourth consecutive year that NIBIB has funded research groundwork by QIBA, following a 2013 contract for $1.25 million.

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.

QIBA is an initiative organized by RSNA in 2007 to advance quantitative imaging and the use of imaging biomarkers in clinical trials and practice.

QIBA engages researchers, healthcare professionals and industry stakeholders by collaborating to identify needs, barriers and solutions to develop and test consistent, reliable, valid and achievable quantitative imaging results across imaging platforms, clinical sites and time. 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.

A portion of the new NIBIB award has been earmarked to support QIBA projects and activities, including development of a Quantitative Imaging Data Warehouse, research to characterize the sources of bias and achievable precision associated with quantitative imaging, and to further develop and test phantoms and digital reference objects.

“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, M.D., QIBA Chair.

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RSNA is an association of more than 53,000 radiologists, radiation oncologists, medical physicists and related scientists promoting excellence in patient care and healthcare delivery through education, research and technologic innovation. The Society is based in Oak Brook, Ill. (RSNA.org)

QIBA’s mission is to improve the value and practicality of quantitative imaging biomarkers by reducing variability across devices, patients and time. (RSNA.org/QIBA)