The Radiological Society of North America on Thursday officially launched what it hopes will be the largest open database of COVID-19 medical images.
It says more than 200 healthcare institutions across the globe have now expressed interest in participating, with “substantial” datasets already added to the repository. RSNA said it hopes radiologists will use this trove of data to fuel education and resource projects and eventually save lives.
“More than ever, this pandemic is showing us that we can rally together toward a common purpose,” Matthew Lungren, MD, RSNA COVID-19 AI Task Force chairman and an assistant professor of radiology at Stanford University, said in a statement. “Rather than siloing data and pursuing fractured efforts, we can instead choose to collaborate through efforts like RICORD to accelerate an end to this pandemic as a united global imaging community.”
The acronym stands for the RSNA International COVID-19 Open Radiology Database, which is free to use. The Oak Brook, Illinois-based society said it was inspired to create the repository after scientists quickly collaborated earlier this year to isolate the novel coronavirus and sequence the genome. RSNA also hopes that collaboration will help fuel the creation of new artificial intelligence and deep learning tools to fight the disease.
At the above link, the society offers data-sharing agreements and tools to help organize, deidentify, store and transfer COVID-related imaging data.
The American College of Radiology also announced earlier this week that it was launching a COVID-19 imaging registry with similar goals.
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.