SCIENTIFIC VISUALIZATION

University Of Chicago, Chicago IL

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

The Scientific Visualization and Image Analysis (SVIA) Core plays an important role in the UCCRC;its services help to promote collaborations that allow imaging to be used by a number of other programs in the UCRRC. The Core provides three essential services: a high performance computer cluster, a large data storage resource, and software to facilitate the development of databases. In 2007, the computation capabilities of the Core will be upgraded using funds from a recently awarded Shared Instrumentation Grant from the NIH. The new system will have 128 CPUs and 14 TBytes of storage. The Core facilitates the development of databases of patient data by providing a means to collect deidentified patient records, including image data. Since the image is collected in such a way that patient identifiers are removed, researchers do not need to obtain patient consent, and their research is HIPAA compliant. Without this service, collecting patient images would be extremely difficult and timeconsuming. Nearly 4000 patient cases (679 GBytes) were collected in this way. All of these users are conducting research on computer-aided diagnosis, but the Core also supports research on image reconstruction, MR imaging and spectroscopy, electron paramagnetic imaging, and receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. While most users of the SVIA Core are from the Advanced Imaging Program, the use of the Core facilitates collaborations with members of other Programs, such as the Cancer Risk and Prevention Program. The SVIA Core's future plans include supporting the expansion of the Advanced Imaging Program to promote collaboration between experts in medical imaging and members in other programs. One way this will be done is to create a list of software developed by members of the Advanced Imaging Program that is available to UCCRC members. The goal is to have non-imaging experts team up with members of the Advanced Imaging Program to apply or modify existing software to solve or help solve problems in the basic biological sciences or in clinical medicine.