Re: [XNAT Discussion] XNAT Pros and Cons

[Daniel Marcus]

Hi Benson,

Glad to hear you're considering using XNAT.  I'm certainly not in an objective position regarding XNAT, but I think the main pro is that is built to do pretty much exactly what you're looking to do.  The main con is that it has a fair learning curve and requires some IT skills to operate.  When the task of installing and maintaining XNAT are assigned as a background project for a non-technical grad student or postdoc, I don't think it typically goes very well. 

You might start by exploring XNAT Central and/or installing the XNAT virtual machine and see what you think.

-Dan

On Wed, Jan 9, 2013 at 2:07 PM, Benson Mwangi <benson...@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear XNAT users/developers,

I work on neuroimaging of psychiatric disorders and over the years we've acquired 'enormous' amount of MRI data with corresponding clinical variables. We are exploring a relational database management system for archiving and retrieval of data with the hope that this will increase efficiency.  As XNAT seems to be a solution that is relatively close to what we are looking for, I have been tasked to work out pros/cons of XNAT as well as some sort of cost-benefit analysis.

Is there any XNAT user/developer who would be happy to take me through the pros/cons of XNAT? 

Many thanks and looking forward.

Regards,

Benson.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "xnat_discussion" group.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/xnat_discussion/-/AYHpGeVyPhAJ.
To post to this group, send email to xnat_di...@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to xnat_discussi...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/xnat_discussion?hl=en.

[David Gutman]

Benson---  Obviously I have slightly less bias than Dan, but a couple of advantages to XNAT over what I am guessing is your current system-- EXcEL spreadsheets and a huge file system with tons of DCM files

1)  It's built to do what you are describing (I am a psychiatrist and that was my main initial use case)

2)  As you delve deeper into the imaging data (ie. DCM stuff)... you'll realize it's a total mess and trying to build something from scratch would be overwhelming--- the idiosyncracies of the DCM "standard" is baffling

3)  Good community support -- i.e. people to ask questions to who usually respond   .. as well as an archive to search

4)  Not many other alternatives out there that have both DICOM/ "PACS" likely functionality but ALSO allow you to tag/markup/organize the data in customizable ways----  

At this point I think a "basic" XNAT install where you literally just download and install the VM image generated a couple of months ago would let you get some familiarity with uploading/organizing data...

The learning curve as Dan points out can be kind of steep-- but that's also a function of what you are trying to accomplish.  If your trying to highly customize it, upload less common data types (i.e. not simple DCM data), etc. it requires finessing.  

Anyway as Dan points out I'd play around with XNAT central and maybe also watch some of the videos from the past XNAT workshops.

Best of luck

--
David A Gutman, M.D. Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Biomedical Informatics
Senior Research Scientist, Center for Comprehensive Informatics
Emory University School of Medicine

[Benson Mwangi]

Hi David,

Many thanks for your prompt and kind reply. Yes, I do realize that we are certainly trying to implement what your center has already achieved. I am currently reading XNAT materials to justify deploying more resources towards system implementation. I hope yourself and other XNAT users will be available to answer any concerns that we may have as we move along. Many thanks and kind regards.

Benson.

[Benson]

Hi David and Daniel,

The last few days I've been looking at XNAT central and in particular I am impressed by the OASIS project data. That's the kind of system we are hoping to have. However, I have one more question which might sound abit naive but will determine how fast we can get someone working on this. Is the data hosted within the NRG group or a central server,  or does each study/institution need to setup their own webserver but integrate XNAT. I guess in short I am trying to find out whether the data is hosted outwith the institution or we can actually host the data here but use XNAT for archiving and retrieval. 

Your thoughts on this will be much appreciated.

Many thanks and kind regards,

Benson

[David Gutman]

Central is most of a demo site/sandbox---- a "real" deployment at an institution uses your own copy of XNAT-- which is part of the learning curve.  People use a variety of settings--- some peopple use virtual machines, some people use "real" hardware... you may have mutliple XNAT instances one for each group/department-- just depends on the IT resources and local politics.

You can actually download a "pre built" virtual machine on the XNAT website and start playing around with your own local copy---

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/xnat_discussion/-/91EqL_g_82sJ.

To post to this group, send email to xnat_di...@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to xnat_discussi...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/xnat_discussion?hl=en.

[Benson]

Many thanks for your prompt answer.

Regards,

Benson.