The Radiological Society of North American announced Monday that it’s launching a COVID-19 imaging data repository in a bid to boost research on the novel disease.
This new data warehouse will compile images from practices and societies across the globe to create a “comprehensive source” for coronavirus exploration. They hope this, in turn, helps radiology researchers to spot trends during the pandemic, and create new artificial intelligence algorithms to detect the disease and differentiate it from other pneumonias.
“Because RSNA is a leader in connecting radiologists around the world, we have received a wave of requests from organizations interested in sharing imaging data, as well as from individuals and organizations seeking access to such data for research and education,” Curtis Langlotz, MD, PhD, board liaison for information technology, said in a March 30 statement. “
To kick off the process, RSNA also released a new survey on Monday to gather radiology business leaders’ thoughts and level of interest in data sharing during the pandemic. The society also revealed Monday that it's inked an agreement with the European Society of Medical Imaging Informatics to share information as part of its COVID-19 AI initiative.
Their goal in the partnership is to provide a secure means to share coronavirus imaging information to help rads assess lung involvement more accurately using AI, according to the announcement. They’ll look to provide a platform that allows hospitals to share such data, and define protocols for selecting and labeling data.
"Other interested organizations are invited to join this coalition to share information and facilitate a rapid response to COVID-19,” RSNA noted in its announcement.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.