Two Different Worlds
There is often a significant gap between the research world and the clinical world, with innovative ideas developed in imaging labs rarely making it into the hands of the radiologist. The reason for this is a profound mismatch in tools. Research tools, such as Matlab and ImageJ, while effective for quickly prototyping new ideas, simply cannot be integrated into clinical workflow. Conversely, clinical tools, namely commercial grade RIS/PACS, are designed in a such a way that new functionality can only be added by the vendor. We at ClearCanvas and the Joint Department of Medical Imaging attempt to bridge this gap with our open source, plugin-based, clinical RIS/PACS that researchers can freely download and extend as they see fit.
ClearCanvas and IPP-Trials
With an eye towards bringing the research and clinical worlds together, ClearCanvas is honoured to be part of the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research: Imaging Pipeline Platform as a partner with the Imaging Pipeline Platform - Cancer Clinical Trials Project (IPP-Trials). Imaging Pipeline Platform and One Millimetre Cancer Challenge are a province wide initiatives co-lead by Dr. Aaron Fenster and Dr. Martin Yaffe, linking respected imaging centers such as the University Health Network (Toronto), Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre (Toronto), McMaster University (Hamilton) and Robarts Research Institute and London Regional Cancer Program (London, Ontario)--to integrate novel imaging tools in cancer clinical research studies. It is funded by the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR). We will be working closely with IPP-Trials scientists, clinicians (oncologists, surgeons, medical imaging) and developers to enhance the existing RIS/PACS platform we have built, so that these researchers can bring cutting edge imaging techniques and analyses to the clinical environment.
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