CTSC:TTIC.011309

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Action Items (details below)

1. The final version of the XNAT engineer job description is now available for distribution to potential candidates.
2. All Consortium members are invited to make edits to the slides for the CTSC Imaging presentation to the Divisions Heads meetings (circulated via email and discussed at the next t-con).
3. Consortium members are asked to contact the Radiology Departments at their institution so that these presentations can be given starting at the end of January.

Harvard Translational Imaging Consortium Meeting Minutes January 13, 2009

In Attendance (via phone):

• Randy Gollub
• Carolyn Zyloney
• Gordon Harris
• Sarah McMordie
• Ron Kikinis
• Valerie Humblet
• Robert Lenkinski
• Laura Alice
• Jeff Yap
• Bill Hanlon
• Bruce Rosen
• Stephan Voss
• Simon Warfield
• Annick D. Van den Abbeele

1. 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.

• Randy Gollub circulated the final version of the XNAT engineer job description in an email.
  • Dan Sullivan and Shawn Murphy approved this job description.

• Consortium members are invited to distribute this job description to potential candidates and their institutions HR department.
  • Carolyn circulated the job description to the MGH Martinos Center community and requested that MGH HR post the job.
  • Valerie Humblet has agreed to contact the HR department at the BIDMC and request that they post this job.
• Valerie will also contact CTSC Central to request that they provide a link to the job description on the Harvard Catalyst web page.

• Since the XNAT Engineer position requires a strong background in IT, the Group agreed that candidates should be interviewed by people with experience in imaging informatics.
  • Bill Hanlon, Ron Kikinis, Gordon Harris, Simon Warfield, and Jeff Yap have all agreed to interview candidates for this position.
  • The Consortium will invite Shawn Murphy from Partners IT, and Gabrieli Fariello from the Buckner laboratory at Harvard to assist with the interview process.

• Randy has requested that the XNAT Engineer be hired through and placed at Children's Hospital, with Simon Warfield acting as a manager.
  • The Consortium believes that placing the XNAT Engineer at Children's Hospital will facilitate the CTSC Imaging Group's efforts to resolve the issues regarding imaging data transfer between Children's Hospital and the other Harvard CTSC institutions.

2. PCIR Review of Imaging Protocols

• Randy spoke with Anne Klibanski and David Nathan regarding the Imaging Consortium's offer to immediately begin the role as the imaging review arm of the PCIR.
  • The Imaging Consortium will officially begin their duties when the web application for the review of PCIR protocols becomes available
  • However, the group can unofficially begin their duties as the review committee now. Randy has permission to share protocols from MGH with the group for review. These confidential protocols will be posted on the xythos site.

• As part of these reviews, the Imaging Consortium will

1. review the imaging resources available at the site where the research will be done and determine if the resources are adequate to meet the investigator's needs
2. answer the investigator's questions and provide advice to improve the proposal

• The Imaging Consortium's responsibilities for the review of PCIR protocols differs from the assistance provided through the consultation service. However, both share a common goal of improving the quality of the imaging research.
  • The group suggested that investigators who submit a protocol with an imaging component for review by the PCIR should have the option to submit it to the Imaging consultation service first.

3. Cost of imaging acquisition

• One of the most commonly encountered questions from researchers involves the cost of imaging resources.
• The Imaging Group supports the goal of creating a standard cost for imaging resources across all the institutions affiliated with Harvard.
• Valerie will collect information on the cost of imaging acquisition scan time from all the sites

4. PowerPoint Presentation for the Divisions Heads meetings

• The group reviewed the PowerPoint slides that were circulated to the group via email.
  • Several consortium members have submitted proposed edits to the slides.
  • The corrected slides will be distributed for discussion at next week's t-con.
  • Consortium members are asked to contact the Radiology Departments at their institution so that these presentations can be given starting at the end of January.

• The following concerns were raised:
  • These slides are not appropriate for meeting with the Radiology departments. The information in the slides would be useful for other departments (e.g. medicine), but a separate set of slides should be created to meet with the Radiology Department and recruit imaging experts who can assist with consultation requests. When presenting to the Radiology departments, the Imaging Consortium needs to describe the potential benefits of volunteering to be a consultant, such as the possibility of networking with researchers and becoming a collaborator on imaging projects.
  • The group agreed that the slides on the Pilot Grants are not relevant and should be removed
  • Annick circulated the following proposed corrections/changes via email:

1. maximum of 10 slides
2. do a "live" presentation of the catalyst via the catalyst web site itself, followed by "live" navigation to the consultation page, presentation of the team when we get to that page, discussion of what we have accomplished so far, followed by a "how to" exercise to demonstrate how to get a consultation step
3. emphasize the richness of each of the site and invite the audience to volunteer their expertise and fill in the blanks (we could distribute a form for them to fill in, or even better have one on the web that they could access to describe their resources and interests
4. demonstrate what is in it for them as we discussed this morning
5. present the IT structure. This needs some work in my opinion. Not everyone will know what the XNAT and i2b2 hive are or what advantage they provide to the entire community, and we may need to expand on this. Also, I think that the institutional clinical and research PACS and local IT efforts are under-represented. This may be counterproductive if people think that they are "left out", and if we do not take into account some ongoing institutional-based IT efforts aimed at post-processing analyses and tools that may become very useful to investigators. So, potential local interest and allowance for horizontal connections to the XNAT/i2b2 hive for these programs may need to be discussed
6. educational efforts/opportunities (ask for volunteers here as well)
7. next steps, contact info
8. leave enough time for questions/discussion

• The Consortium will use these presentations to find out what the available imaging resources are at each institution and what kinds of educational programs researchers are interested in attending. Valerie will also distribute the Imaging Consortium's contact information. Time will be left at the end of each presentation to collect the contact information from researchers who are interested in helping the Imaging Consortium with consultations or the informatics proposal.