CTSC:TTIC.012009

Back to Collaboration:Harvard_CTSC
'Action Items (details below)

1. All Consortium members are invited to distribute the final version of the XNAT engineer job description to potential candidates.
2. Some Consortium members are asked to contact the IT Departments at their institution to schedule a meeting

Harvard Translational Imaging Consortium Meeting Minutes January 20, 2009

In Attendance (via phone):

• Carolyn Zyloney
• Gordon Harris
• Valerie Humblet
• Robert Lenkinski
• Jeff Yap
• Bill Hanlon
• Bruce Rosen
• Stephan Voss
• Simon Warfield
• Annick D. Van den Abbeele
• Gordon Williams

1. PowerPoint Presentation for the Divisions Heads meetings

• The group reviewed the latest version of the PowerPoint slides that were circulated via email.

• The following comments were made:

• • The role of the consultants will include mentoring young investigators on the proper use of technology and helping with the grants.
  • Gordon (Williams?) talked about having two levels of mentors. Junior faculty will most likely contribute the most to the consultation service and can add their service on their resumes. More senior faculty members will likely be less involved but will provide a level of oversight. The goal of the Imaging Consortium is to recruit people from both experience levels to serve as consultants.
  • The challenge will be to emphasize the benefits of volunteering to be a consultant. Bob suggested to add examples from the first round of Catalyst grant approved.
  • Prior to giving the presentations to the Radiology departments, group members will meet with the Heads of the Radiology Departments to get their input. Bruce will schedule a meeting with Jim Thrall (Head of the Radiology Department at MGH) before the division meetings to get his feedback on how to get junior people involved. Annick and Bob will also set up meetings with the Heads of the Radiology Department at their respective institutions.
  • During the presentations to the Divisions Heads, it will be a good time to ask for their input about what is good for the more junior faculty members, make sure they will have time allowed for mentoring even if there is less funding involved. It is important to show that junior people could get new collaborations, more grant opportunities.

• • Concerning the slide about the expertise existing at the different sites, Valerie's role will be to find people able to give a list of what is available in their department. We will ask Division's chiefs about those contacts. We will also use the presentations to request input from the Radiology community. The Group proposed setting up a link on the Catalyst web site that will allow people to add their expertise if missing from our list.

• • Concerning the IT structure, the consortium members agreed that they need to get feedback on the PACS systems from the Chiefs of the IT Departments.
  • The goal of the Harvard CTSC Imaging Consortium is to ensure that all members of the Harvard community have access to the IT resources that are available and to provide assistance to investigators.
  • The Group proposed setting up 5 PACS systems per site.
  • The slides will be reorganized to determine what IT connections currently exist and what connections are planned for the future.
    • The consortium wants to organize a meeting with the different IT departments (hospitals and Catalyst) together to identify the challenges.
    • Bill, Simon, Bruce and Valerie offered to organize those meetings. A good timing would be after the department heads meeting, probably 4 to 6 weeks from now at best. Annick suggested getting Keith Dreyer (MGH) on board to get his input.
    • In preparation of the IT meetings, Stefan said that it is important to come with an action items list. Simon and Annick suggested coming with a practical example to use to test the structure (ex: phantom project). IT people must understand what they need to change in their institution's policy to fit in the Catalyst structure.
    • Several key contacts for IT meeting: Shawn Murphy (Partners IT), Zak Kohane (Head of the Catalyst IT Group)
    • The action plan is to get a rough draft of what is already accomplished and what need to be implemented, then contact Shawn Murphy for his feedback. The plan will then be submitted to Zak and then the Chairs.

2. XNAT Engineer Job Description

Hiring an XNAT engineer is a top priority for the Imaging Consortium and the group agreed that a skilled candidate should be hired as soon as possible.

• Valerie contacted the HR department of BIDMC but it is not their policy to post a job that does not have a budget approved at BIDMC. She sent the job description to the BU graduate program and will send it to a couple of engineering schools.
• Stephen will try to post it on the Children's Hospital Web site.
• Valerie contacted Catalyst Central but so far they do not post job offers other than theirs.

3. Reporting consulting contacts for the NIH Progress Report

• Valerie asked the Consortium members to send her information about any consults they have done outside the t-con. She will forward the answers to Seanne Hanke.

4. Catalyst Grant applications

• Bob, Bruce and Annick reviewed several selected applications, 5 to 6 will be invited for interview on January 26 or 28. Overall they agree the projects were very creative, it is a good process, worth the effort.
• Some projects needed mentoring so it will be helpful to have face to face meetings with the investigators.
• Investigators are required to get IRB approval before they can be awarded the funds.
• There will be another round of Catalyst Grants in May; the members agreed they should request that CTSC Central allocates more resources for imaging projects.

5. CTSC Joint Workshop in Baltimore March 29

• Annick, Jeff and Gordon have been invited to the IRAT/CTSA Joint Workshop on March 29-31, 2009 in Baltimore. They plan to attend the meeting.
  • The workshop includes breakout groups on Cores/Education, Clinical Trials (UPICT)and Imaging Informatics
• Gordon forwarded the invitation with program details via email. If other members would like to join, please contact Annick, Jeff, or Gordon, who will make the request.