The Office of Science and Technology Policy advises the Executive Office of the President on matters concerning scientific areas. To help direct research, the report “Roadmap for Medical Imaging Research and Development Research & Development” was compiled by the “Interagency Working Group on Medical Imaging” (IWGMI) working within OSTP’s National Science and Technology Council http://www.whitehouse.gov/ostp/nstc.
The Federal government invests in medical imaging research and plays an important role in developing and deploying imaging technology. The IWGMI is involved in coordinating Federal investments and developed the Roadmap to provide future medical imaging R&D information as required by committees dealing with appropriations for the agencies.
IWGMI included ideas from the broad community of medical imaging stakeholders, including patient advocacy groups, academics, professional societies, industry, and government representatives.
One of the recommendations as reported in the section “Apply Advanced Computation and Machine Learning to Medical Imaging” describes how medical imaging guides the course of much of patient care and is an essential element involved in biomedical research.
As the report explains, medical imaging can range from x-rays and ultrasound to computerized tomography, functional magnetic resonance imaging, and positron emission tomography to help clinicians diagnose, treat, and understand a range of diseases and conditions.
One of the areas very important to the medical imaging field involves using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Report discusses how AI and machine learning hold great promise for medical imaging.
Using enhanced analytic capacities can help improve image acquisition and decision-making toward diagnoses and make it possible for clinicians to interface with other patient data such as clinical, laboratory, and genomic findings so clinicians would be able to tailor treatments for each patient.
The report points out how important it will be to move these new technologies and achievements into the market place. Collaboration and knowledge sharing among Federal agencies while developing the new medical imaging technologies could produce innovative technologies and at the same time, accelerate the transition from the laboratory to marketplace.
Go to https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Roadmap-for-Medical-Imaging-Research-and-Development-2017.pdf to view the report.