CTSC:TTIC.102808

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Action Items (details below)

1. Submit pictures for the Harvard Catalyst Imaging Consultation Page
2. Formulate suggestions for shared CTSC-sponsored equipment purchases, other than neuroimaging informatics and data transfer hardware and software.
3. Please review the CVs of the two imaging liaison candidates that have been circulated electronically

Harvard Translational Imaging Consortium Meeting Minutes October 28, 2008

In Attendance:

• In person
  • Randy Gollub
  • Carolyn Zyloney
  • Bruce Rosen
  • Bill Hanlon
  • Jeff Yap
  • Laura Alice
  • Neil Rofsky
  • Sarah McMordie
  • Gordon Williams
• Via phone
  • Gordon Harris
  • Bob Lenkinski
  • Annick D. Van den Abbeele

1. Future Educational Programs

• The Imaging Consortium proposed several courses for 2009
  • Annick has agreed to host a workshop on tumor metrics in the first quarter of 2009.
  • Greg Sorenson has been invited to give a lecture on cardiovascular imaging
  • Ellen Grant will been asked to give or advise on a workshop on general neuroimaging
  • Randy has offered to make up a tentative outline based on past discussions of possible educational programs, which will be presented at a future meeting.
• The CTSC has a system in place that will make scheduling a venue for the educational offerings simple
• Neil brought up the question of whether and how to use the educational offerings to educate its user community about the CTSC and its educational service.

2. Consultation Service

• The image at the top of the consultation web-page will scroll through several pictures.
  • The Imaging Group is requested to submit any ideas for these pictures to Randy Gollub by November 4th.

3. Imaging Program at Harvard and MIT

• Randy Buckner is the director of the imaging facilities for Harvard FAS. He has designated Randy Gollub as the official liaison between Harvard and the Imaging Consortium
• John Gabrieli is the head of the Martinos Imaging Center at MIT. Randy Gollub has been designated as the temporary liaison for the MIT.
• Randy Gollub met with Randy Buckner from Harvard and John Gabrieli from MIT to discuss their clinical translational imaging needs and consultation service needs at their institutions
• Both Randy Buckner and Jim Gabrieli expressed strong support for the consult service.

4. Physiological Monitoring Equipment for Imaging Research

• Both Harvard and MIT have requested logistical and technical support for physiological monitoring at their imaging acquisition sites, per requests from the user community.
• Other institutions within the CTSC may also have a need for physiological monitoring equiptment, particularly BIDMC.
• Randy has obtained a quote for a physiological monitoring system that would replicate the equiptment currently in use at MGH. This system has been requested at three sites within the Conosrtium: MGH, MIT and Harvard.
  • This physiological equiptment is for research imaging and is unlikely to fit the needs of clinical imaging projects
  • Consortium members are invited to suggest alternative vendors for consideration.

5. Medical Image Analysis Services

• Clinical translational investigators may wish to purchase fMRI analysis services
• Several medical image analysis services already exist but with a limited scope
  • The TIMC offers its imaging analysis services for cancer clinical trials to all DF/HCC and non-DF/HCC oncology PIs on a fee-for-service basis.
  • The Center for Morphometric Analysis at MGH offers analysis services for structural MRI imaging.
  • Bruce Fischel's Computational Analysis service at MGH also offers structural MRI analysis services.
• The Imaging Consoritum is considering the possibility of setting up a fMRI medical imaging analysis service
  • The Consortium will inquire as to whether CTSC Central can help support this service
  • If this service is developed, there will likely be a fee for investigators requesting image analysis support
  • The TIMC can provide the business model for this service
  • There are multiple types of medical image analysis needs, including PET, fMRI, FDG functional activation, and other imaging modalities.
• John Gabrieli at MIT has mentioned that he is interested in an image analysis service
  • The proposal for developing a medical image analysis service will be the topic of a future Imaging Consortium meeting
  • The Imaging Consortium has invited John Gabrieli to attend this meeting

6. Imaging Data Storage

• The Imaging Consortium will not purchase a large data storage repository in the first year of the CTSC as storage requirements will likely be small in the beginning.
• Imaging data storage will likely become a large expense in the upcoming years and the budget of this consortium is being managed to enable that expense.

7. Imaging Information and Acquisition Liaison Job

• The title Navigator is reserved for the official CTSC Central Navigators and cannot be used by the Imaging Consortium to refer to the Imaging Triage Consultant/Imaging Information and Acquisition Liaison
  • Consortium members have been requested to submit a new title for this job opportunity.
• Randy Gollub will screen all job candidates and contact their references. Information on the job candidates will be circulated to the consortium at weekly meetings and electronically. When several suitable candidates have been found, several members of Imaging Consortium have agreed to help give interviews.
• The Imaging Liaison will be the point of contact with the Radiology Department and will maintain a list of possible consultants and their areas of expertise.
  • Since the Imaging Liaison will be responsible for communicating with the Radiology community, it is critical that the candidate hired attends the presentations at the Radiology Department Division Heads meetings at the Harvard CTCS-affiliated hospitals and meets the members of the Radiology departments.
  • The Imaging Group will request assistance from CTSC IT Central to set up a web-based search device to retrieve a list consultants with a particular expertise
  • The successful job candidate will acquire knowledge about these consultants and develop relationships with the members of the Radiology departments and the imaging community.

8. PowerPoint Presentation for Radiology Divisions Heads Meetings

• Slides are still under development to be used at the presentations to the Radiology Departments at the affiliated hospitals.
• The Consortium will continue to work on these slides at future meetings
• There was unanimous agreement to delay the presentations at the Radiology Division Heads meetings at each site until an Imaging Liaison is hired.

9. The notes from the October 28th meeting with the CTSC Informatics Group are available at CTSC:TTIC.102808.Informatics_Meeting