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.

• Annick received an additional consultation request concerning the resources at the NMR Center.
  • Randy plans on requesting Greg Sorenson's assistance with consultation requests concerning the resources within the Martinos Center.
  • When hired, the Imaging Liaison will be in charge of creating a list of resources at each site and using this list to respond to consultation requests.

• The Imaging Consortium discussed setting up a policy for the CTSC review of Imaging protocols
  • Stephan mentioned that at another CTSC, their staff looks through every protocol in order to help researchers work most efficiently within the system.
  • Under the GCRC system, all high risk protocols (such as those involving the use of a contrast agent) underwent review from the GCRC and GAC.
  • The Imaging Consortium has volunteered to serve as an Imaging consultant in the CTSC's scientific committee that will review those grants that are not NIH or peer-reviewed. This committee is replacing the GACs.
  • The Imaging Consortium agreed that we should review all high risk protocols. The Consortium will advertise its services to all investigators but not require lower risk studies to use our services.

2. Imaging Information and Acquisition Liaison Job Position

• The Imaging Consortium set December 18th as the deadline for members to complete interviewing the candidates and post their evaluations on the xythos site.
  • The Imaging Consortium members have already met with or have scheduled interviews with three qualified candidates for the position.
  • The Imaging Consortium unanimously decided to offer an interview to the most recent candidate.
  • The CTSC Diversity Group has volunteered to assist the Imaging Consortium in finding additional qualified candidates for the position.
  • There will be a special t-con on Friday December 19th at 9:30 am to discuss the candidates and make a decision to hire the most qualified applicant.

• 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.

• When hired, the Imaging Liaison will assume the following responsibilities:
  • triage of consultation requests
  • organizing the educational program
  • drafting a list of the resources at each site within the Harvard CTSC
  • organizing a standard language for IRB submissions that include imaging
  • setting up and training people to use the physiological monitoring system

3. Report from RSNA

• Jeff Yap reported to the group a summary of the RSNA Quantitative Imaging Biomarkers Alliance (QIBA) meeting and the PET, MRI, and CT working group breakout meetings (held December 4th).
  • The CT group focused on the topic of defining volumetric CT, IHE profiles, and the current needs and limitations.
  • The MR group is involved in a data acquisition project. IRAT developed a phantom for DCE. This phantom will be sent around to several sites and scanned in MRI machines from different vendors with the goal of measuring the degree of standardization among the different scanners. The consortium noted that this project has goals that overlap with the goals of the BIRN project and has requested a list of the sites where the phantom will be scanned.

• • 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 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.

• 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. Update from 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.