[OSIPI Newsletter] OSIPI at ISMRM; call for volunteers!

[Laura Bell]

OSIPI newsletter: April 18, 2019

Dear colleagues,

We’ve been busy gearing up in the hopes to meet you at ISMRM next month! We also want to make it clear that this initiative should not be limited to those doing perfusion MRI - we really want to reach out to the perfusion community as a whole. As this initiative started from the ISMRM organization, we realized that this can easily be mistaken. If you know of anyone outside of the MRI field who might be interested, please forward along. Okay, let’s dive in:

Reminder of upcoming OSIPI Events - connect in person!

At ISMRM next month, we have two opportunities to meet (http://www.osipi.org/events/):

1. ISMRM Member-Initiated Symposium “Open Source Initiative for Perfusion Imaging” on Monday, May 13th from 1:45-3:45 pm. You can find more details at https://www.ismrm.org/19/program_files/MIS04.htm.
2. 1st Annual Face-to-Face Meeting hosted by Ives Levesque of McGill University in Montreal on Friday, May 17th from 10:30 am - 12:45 pm. This meeting is free, but registration is required (and more details) via EventBrite.

OSIPI Mission and Aims - an initial presentation:

In the last few months, the EMB has diligently been working on our mission statement and aims. We realize these will be evolving over time, but for now have settled on (more details can be found at http://osipi.org):

OSIPI mission: To promote the sharing of perfusion imaging software in order to eliminate the practice of duplicate development, improve the reproducibility of perfusion imaging research, and speed up the translation into tools for discovery science, drug development and clinical practice.

OSIPI specific aims:

1. Develop a comprehensive inventory of complete open source packages for perfusion imaging analysis.

2. Develop a library of open-source functions, scripts and pipelines for perfusion imaging analysis.

3. Develop an inventory of data for the evaluation of perfusion software.

4. Develop consensus guidelines for reporting image acquisition and analysis of perfusion imaging.

5. Develop a platform for discussion and exchange between developers and users of perfusion software.

6. Develop benchmarks and application to existing software.

OSIPI Task forces - volunteers are needed!

In order to achieve the OSIPI specific aims  task forces will be formed. Task forces are groups of OSIPI community volunteers with the interest and expertise in the subject matter of a specific aim, who are actively working towards development of the aim. Task forces are open for participation by anyone in the OSIPI community. 

If you are interested in forming or joining a task force, please contact one of the EMB members, or initiate the discussion on the OSIPI forum! We will have a discussion of the formation of the task forces at the 1st Face-to-Face meeting (see above), but you do not need to wait for the meeting if you want to volunteer or have comments.

Community feedback needed - follow up on initial survey!

In order to start making progress on the above specific aims (#1-3), we need your help! We have three surveys/questionnaires we’d love for you to fill out. They can be filled out with as much or as little detail as you want. We just want a general idea right now on perfusion software, codes, data, and DROs being used by all. We are an open-source initiative but also find it valuable to survey all perfusion software platforms are being used, so please share away.

All three surveys are in this shareable link - each one has its own tab. We plan on reviewing these responses during our 1st Annual Face-to-Face in Montreal next month (see below). In summary, these are the three aspects we’re interested in:

1. Perfusion Software Inventory: Tell us what perfusion software you are using or have created. You do not need to be the developer to fill this out, as we also want to know your experience using this software. If someone else has listed the perfusion software you use, feel free to relist with a blurb about your own experience and/or what you are looking for in a software platform. Any perfusion software is welcome to be listed here.
2. Perfusion Code Inventory: Tell us what perfusion code you have and might be willing to share. This can be snippets of code, functions, and/or analysis scripts.
3. Perfusion Data Inventory: Tell us what data (clinical/preclinical/phantoms/digital reference phantoms) you have and might be willing to share. Additional, if you use or know of publicly available dataset that the community might be interested in, please include!

Sign up for OSIPI and stay up-to-date:
The EMB has been working on a website that holds all this information and more. Please visit us at http://osipi.org! On this website is information about our google group so that you will receive these newsletters - you’re most likely already on this list if you are receiving this directly! Also, forward this link to anyone you know that might be interested in joining OSIPI - the more we are, the more we can do.

We look forward to hearing back in regards to the surveys and seeing you next month!

Best,
Laura

On behalf of OSIPI’s EMB:
Charlotte Debus
Andrey Fedorov
Laura Bell
Amedeo Chiribiri
Patricia Clement
Simon Lévy
Steven Sourbron
Frank Zöllner