CTSC:TTIC.120908

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Action Items (details below)

1. There will be a special meeting to discuss the Imaging Liaison candidates on Friday December 19th at 9:30 am. Please schedule all interviews with the candidates and update the form sheet for evaluations on the xythos site after the interview no later than December 18th.

Harvard Translational Imaging Consortium Meeting Minutes December 9, 2008

In Attendance (via phone):

• Randy Gollub
• Carolyn Zyloney
• Jeff Yap
• Bill Hanlon
• Clare Tempany
• Annick D. Van den Abbeele
• Laura Alice
• Sarah McMordie
• Stephan Voss

• Karl Helmer was a special guest at the t-con this week. He is

1. CTSC Imaging Consultation Request

• The Imaging Consortium received one consultation request and discussed it during the t-con.
• In the request, a researcher asked for assistance with a pathology and biochemistry imaging project.
• The Consortium unanimously agreed that questions concerning biochemical and pathological laboratory techniques do not fall into the domain of the CTSC Imaging Group. These kinds of requests will be forwarded to the CTSC Navigators, who can help direct researchers to the appropriate resources.

2. Imaging Information and Acquisition Liaison Job Position

• Randy Gollub accepted the role of being in charge of the Imaging Liaison when he or she is hired.
  • Randy will serve as the connection between the Liaison and the Imaging Consortium. She will be the person primarily in charge of training the Imaging Liaison in conjunction with Carolyn, assigning tasks for the new employee to complete, and supervising the Imaging Liaison.
  • The Imaging Liaison job description will be edited to reflect Randy's role as a mentor.

• The job description has been circulated through several outlets:
  • MGH has been asked to post the position on the Partners careers site
  • An email with the job description was sent to the Martinos Center community via email.
  • An ad for the position was posted on the RSNA web site starting in mid-November. It will be posted there for a month.
  • The ad has also been posted on numerous career websites.
  • The ad will be featured in the December issue of Radiology (an RSNA publication).
  • A short description of the position will be posted on a monitor at the Career Connection booth at the RSNA Conference in December.
• Three promising candidates have been invited in for interviews with several members of the consortium.
  • The candidates have been instructed to contact the interviewers and set up appointments.
  • Several consortium members have confirmed that all three candidates have contacted them.
  • Interviews will continue through the next few weeks.
• Most materials from the applicants is already posted on the Xythos file sharing website. Additional materials, such as notes from meetings with the candidate's references will be posted shortly.
• After interviewing the job applicants, all interviewers are requested to make comments on the "Form Sheet For Evaluation" located in each applicant's directory, and post an updated version of this document on the Xythos site.

3.

• While the goals of the National CTSC Imaging Informatics working group are complementary to the goals of the Harvard CTSC Imaging Group, the national group has a different set of strategic goals than the Consortium.
  • The time line over which the national goals will be carried out is unclear.
  • The Imaging Consortium unanimously agreed to continue with our plan to connect the XNAT instances at each of the institutions within the Harvard CTSC.
  • In designing this first step for connecting the Harvard institutions, the Harvard CTSC Imaging Group will work to ensure that our system is interoperable with the national goals and systems.

• Establishing a connection between all sites within the Harvard CTSC is anticipated to be a large and difficult project.
  • Several hard lines already exist between BIDMC and Partners as well as Children's Hospital and Partners. The Consortium plans on finding out more about the locations and technical details of these hard lines and if they can support the transfer of Imaging data.

• The Imaging Consortium agreed to try to connect with the heads of IT and Informatics at each site.
  • Randy met with Shawn Murphy from Partners IT. Shawn Murphy has been making good progress in presenting the Imaging group's goals to the head of IT at Partners.
  • Randy will meet with Simon and Stephan to learn more about the IT department and Children's Hospital and the progress that the Consortium members from Children's Hospital have made in sharing the Informatics proposal.

• The Imaging Consortium agreed to set up a follow up meeting with the CTSC Informatics Group to discuss the progress that has been made since last meeting with that working group.

• Randy suggested that the Consortium members consider preparing a manuscript on the issues of data sharing and the protection of human subjects as they relate to neuroinformatics. Randy plans on meeting with Pearl O'Rourke to discuss writing a manuscript for publication.

5. RSNA

• There are several events of interest during RSNA. The Imaging Consortium has discussed plans to attend these meetings:
  • An informational session on the activities of the Quantitative Imaging Biomarkers Alliance (QIBA), will be held Monday, December 1, 2008 from 10:30 AM – 12:00 Noon (McCormick Convention Center, Room S103 C&D). Dan Sullivan is the host of this meeting.
    The December 1, 2008 meeting will provide more information about QIBA’s history, process, and goals. In addition, each of the three QIBA Technical Committees will provide updates on their projects. This meeting is open to all RSNA Annual Meeting attendees, so feel free to share this information with other interested persons. If you are unable to attend, please be aware that an informational exhibit on QIBA’s goals and the work of the Technical Committees will also be displayed in the Learning Center during RSNA 2008.
    Annick has agreed to attend this session as a representative of the Imaging Consortium.
  • The RSNA organized Imaging Working Group will meet on Tuesday December 2nd from 3 PM to 5 PM in room S104B to be led by Dan Sullivan and include break out sessions for Informatics, Education and Clinical Trials. This meeting is open to the community. Randy, Bill, Gordon Harris, Jeff and perhaps others will be in attendance.
  • The PET, MRI, and CT working groups will be meeting on Thursday December 4th. These meetings provide an opportunity for pharmaceutical companies, manufacturers, software groups, and clinical trials researchers to formulate guidelines.
    Jeff Yap has agreed to attend these sessions if they are pertinent to the Imaging Consortium's goals.