Cancer imaging workspace solicits participation

The In Vivo Imaging Workspace, part of the National Cancer Institute's biomedical informatics grid, is now a fully functional operation that is actively seeking participation from cancer centers, industry, organizations, and standards groups.

The workspace's first face-to-face meeting is set for Dec. 15 and 16 in Philadelphia. The goal is to quickly identify short-term, low-cost, and low-risk projects for the group's first year, according to Dr. Eliot Siegel, vice chair of information systems at the University of Maryland and chief of radiology and nuclear medicine at the Maryland Health Care System.

Participation is not limited to large organizations and vendors, and individual as well as international participation is encouraged.

"We want to involve a wide range of participants," he said.

The cancer biomedical informatics grid, or caBIG, was launched in February 2004. It brings together investigators and research teams who can combine and leverage their findings and expertise to meet the NCI's goal of eliminating suffering and death due to cancer by 2015, said Siegel, the workspace's lead.

caBIG has four domain virtual "workspaces": clinical trials management systems, integrative cancer research, tissue banks and pathology tools, and in vivo imaging.

Imaging plays a large part in achieving NCI's stated goal - hence the development of the in vivo imaging workspace, the newest addition to caBIG just launched in October.

During a an RSNA 2005 meeting scientific session, Siegel outlined his own priorities for the imaging workspaces to develop:

• common imaging vocabularies

• natural language processing tools

• automated change tools

• imaging standards for small-animal studies

• reference data sets for imaging

• improved tools for anonymization

• grid mechanics to provide functional multi-institutional services

• standards for normalized data for such applications as mammography and PET/CT

More information can be found at caBIG.