[ITK] Free CT Scanner Image Quality Reports

[Rick Avila]

     I would like to let you all know about a free and new CT image quality
assessment service that we have launched as a resource to the imaging
community. As we all know, it is important for image detection and
measurement algorithms to understand and even adapt to the fundamental
characteristics of an image (3D PSF, noise, ...) to achieve high
performance and resilient results.

      If you have gone to the trouble of using traditional phantoms to
estimate PSF and other image quality characteristics you also know it can
be challenging to get hold of a phantom and enough CT scanner time to
obtain these measurements for your projects. So we decided to make it as
easy and inexpensive as possible to get some first order estimates and
launched a free cloud based service to do this at RSNA last week. All you
need to do is to zip up a single CT DICOM series of three rolls of 3M
scotch tape, upload the data to our amazon cloud service, and we will email
you back a report showing the fundamental characteristics of the scan from
near isocenter out to the periphery. Once uploaded it generally takes
around 15 minutes of processing time to calculate and send you back a
report with fundamental image quality characteristics and estimates for the
detection and measurement performance of different size lung nodules. Also
keep in mind that the service will remain free and we would be delighted to
collaborate with groups interested in extending this to other applications
and measurements.

You can find instructions for the service here:

     http://accumetra.com/solutions/free-ct-image-quality-reports/

     I should also mention that we are working with multiple major
hospitals and communities to build up a database CT scanner and protocol
image quality and have collected data on the newest and most technically
advanced CT scanner offerings from the major vendors (as well as older
scanners). So in the future you we will also be able to tell you how your
CT scan's performance stacks up to others and how much performance
variability we are seeing out there.

     I encourage you all to give it a try and contact me if you have any
questions or would like to see this extended to support additional features
and functionality. If there is interest we can also set up a web conference
to walk through the service and how to better access and use the
information provided.

- Rick
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