Daniel C. Sullivan MD, Presenter: Nothing to Disclose

1) Describe the benefits of implementing more quantitative image interpretation in clinical radiology practice. 2) Understand the activities that RSNA supports to help move the profession of radiology from a primarily qualitative interpretation paradigm to a more quantitative-based interpretation model. 3) Describe the challenges of extracting uniform, standardized quantitative measures from clinical imaging scans.

The RSNA Strategic Plan strives to advance the radiological sciences and foster the development of new technologies in part by promoting the quantification of imaging results. The added value of quantification in both research and clinical environments is likely to increase as health care initiatives place increased pressure on radiologists to provide decision support for evidence-based care. There remain substantial barriers to the widespread use of quantitative measures in clinical radiology including inherently large number of variables that impede validation of specific metrics, diversity of proprietary industry platforms, and lack of acceptance by radiologists. A critical barrier to the implementation of QI in radiology is the lack of standardization among vendor platforms. Collaboration in the pre-competitive space is challenging yet crucial to address standardization, and integrating quantitative measurement into workflow will be necessary for wide adoption. The obstacles to overcome with practicing radiologists are a distrust of the reliability of QI and the fear of losing value of radiologists' expertise through automation and commoditization. The Quantitative Imaging Biomarkers Alliance (QIBA) was officially launched in 2007 as a means to unite researchers, healthcare professionals, and industry stakeholders in the advancement of quantitative imaging.  QIBA's mission is to: Improve the value and practicality of quantitative biomarkers by reducing variability across devices, patients and time. QIBA's six active technical committees (DCE-MRI, fMRI, FDG-PET, volumetric CT, COPD-Asthma, US shear-wave speed) develop QIBA Profiles (i.e., documents) of standardized specifications for image acquisition, collection, and post-processing.

Sullivan, D, RSNA Perspective and Initiatives.  Radiological Society of North America 2014 Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting, - ,Chicago IL. http://archive.rsna.org/2014/12020933.html