CTSC:TTIC.091608

Back to Collaboration:Harvard_CTSC
Action Items (details below)

1. Review the Imaging Consultation Request Form posted below (everybody)
2. Review the updated consultation page on the wiki (everybody)
3. Refine the list of expertise (everybody)
4. Review the draft of the Imaging Information and Analysis Liaison/Imaging Navigator/Triage Consultant job description (everybody)

Harvard Translational Imaging Consortium Meeting Minutes September 9, 2008

In Attendance (in person):

• Gordon Williams
• Bill Hanlon
• Laura Alice
• Stephan Voss
• Randy Gollub
• Clare Tempany
• Zeke Bernstein-Hanley
• Carolyn Zyloney
• Gordon Harris
• Sarah McMordie
• Ron Kikinis
• Jeff Yap
• Annick D van den Abbeele
• Bob Lenkinski
• Simon Warfield

1. Consultation Service
The draft of the Imaging Consultation web-page has been posted on this wiki. The Imaging Consortium unanimously approved of the content of this draft but with the following improvements suggested.

• Zeke and colleagues are to draft the top-level text of the Imaging consultation web-page so that it is in harmony with the other consultation web-pages on the Harvard Catalyst website.
• Zeke has created a draft of the Imaging Consultation Request Form. This document is similar to the consultation request forms already posted on the Biostatistics and Genetics consultation web-pages on the Harvard Catalyst website, but includes a list of consultation services that are specific to the Imaging group. Investigators will be able to download and submit the form. This request form will be discussed at the next imaging teleconference. The proposed web-based consultation request system with RSS feed will not be available for the first release of the consultation web-site but the Imaging Consortium still plans to develop this submission system.
• All Imaging Consortium sites are requested to refine the list of expertise at their site to include all available imaging modalities that the consortium members possess expertise in as well as any expertise in the areas of image acquisition, analysis, and experimental design.
• The Imaging Information and Analysis Liaison/Imaging Navigator/Triage Consultant job description will be posted by the next teleconference for discussion.

The Imaging Consortium plans on including this consultation service web-page with the next Harvard Catalyst web-site release on October 15th.

2. Image Analysis

• Annick commented and the group agreed that image acquisition is related to its analysis and both aspects of bioimaging research are equally important.
• The wiki page should be updated to include each site's analysis expertise.
  • Randy Gollub will talk with Bruce Fishel who is an analysis expert at MGH.
  • Ron Kikinis and Clare Tempany represent the analysis expertise at BWH.
  • Simon Warfield represents the analysis expertise at Children's Hospital.
  • Gordon Harris is the analysis expert at Dana Farber
  • The Consortium requests an update on the analysis expertise at BIDMC

The Imaging Consortium unanimously agreed to use the Genetics and Biostatistics consultation service web-pages on the Harvard Catalyst website as a model. The consulting web page will include:

• key contacts within the consultation service
• the consultation services that are and are not provided
• an explanation of who is eligible to utilize these services
• a form for requesting consulting services

The Imaging group's consultation web-page will be posted on the Harvard Catalyst website on October 15th. There was universal agreement among the Imaging Consortium that requests for consultation services should be submitted online via a web-based form and should be linked to an RSS feed to notify Imaging Consortium members of new consultation requests. The web-based system will allow for tracking of requests and the time required to respond to those requests as well as allow for the collection of outcome metrics. This idea of a web-based submission of requests will be proposed to Genetics and Biostatistics and discussed with the the CTSC IT team, including Douglas MacFadden.The Consortium's individual members will serve as consultants and will use the weekly teleconference to discuss consultation requests and train a new consultation triage person. Randy Gollub volunteered to serve as the triage consultant until the Imaging Consortium can hire a triage person. The consortium agreed that the consulting service will focus on domains in which the consortium currently possesses expertise in, including CT, MRI, and PET. However, the consortium will consider extending the consulting service to additional domains on demand. Randy Gollub has approached Ellen Grant, who has agreed to provide some minimal but helpful assistance with pediatric neuroimaging consultations.

2. Image Data Management and Medical Imaging Informatics
Sharing imaging data between sites is difficult due to HIPAA regulations and security. For each study that requires sharing data between institutions, a policy must be developed to regulate it. The consortium does not plan on developing a central archive of imaging data. Based on the systems in use by Bill Hanlon, Gordon Harris, and the Dana Farber Cancer Center's Tumormetrics Core, it seems possible to develop a system to work with each institutions XNAT instance to facilitate the transfer of data. The group acknowledges that there is still a great deal of work that needs to be done but expresses enthusiasm in continuing the effort to support multi-site clinical imaging studies

3. Job positions to be created and filled

• Imaging Information and Analysis Liaison/Imaging Navigator/Triage Consultant:

Potential job responsibilities include managing the consultation service, working with the IT team, teaching investigators to use XNAT resources, educating investigators, providing tutorials and training for image analysis, working with the CTSC Research Navigators, and serving as the imaging consortium's go-to person. Candidates should possess a PhD with expertise in neuroimaging research. The qualities desired in a candidate may be adapted from the CTSC Research Navigator job description.

• XNAT engineers

There is need to hire two skilled computer scientists to work collaboratively on image data bioinformatics. Our proposal is that one will be hired by CTSC IT central and supervised by Shawn Murphy and Zak Kohane and their team and will work with the Imaging Consortium on deploying an XNAT data management system at each i2b2 Hive. The second XNAT engineer will work collaboratively with the first so that the XNAT software can be customized to support each individual clinical translational scientist using it. The two XNAT engineers will work collabortativly with Bill Hanlon and his team to build a system to facilitate the transfer of clinical imaging data from each institution into their respective XNAT instance and will work to facilitate the transfer of data between XNAT instances across institutions.