Opportunities for Research with the American College of Radiology Imaging Network (ACRIN) Image Database

Abstract

The American College of Radiology Imaging Network (ACRIN) is a National Cancer Institute–funded cooperative group dedicated to conducting multi-institutional, multidisciplinary trials of diagnostic imaging and imageguided therapeutic technologies (1,2). As previously reported in this regular series of editorials in Academic Radiology, among the objectives of ACRIN are the involvement of the radiologic community in the organization’s research projects and the research education of imaging investigators. In addition, ACRIN is developing an electronic archive of all of the images of its trials. The archive will be made available to investigators to conduct secondary research on these collected images and surely will be an invaluable research resource for the future. The complete policy for gaining access to the archive is presented on the ACRIN Web site, www.acrin.org, under the header “Researchers.” This editorial presents some of the important issues that were considered in developing this policy. ACRIN is a wholly electronic cooperative group—the first to establish such a complete informatics infrastructure. The electronic infrastructure allows ACRIN to recruit patients, randomize them into trials (if required by the protocol), submit data and images to ACRIN headquarters in Philadelphia, Pa, and monitor the activities of the organization day and night, 365 days a year. The infrastructure also permits the archiving of every image for every trial in our electronic database. The primary uses for these images are to permit the trial teams to perform quality assurance, off-line interpretations, and comparisons with standards of evidence intrinsic to the goals of the respective trials. However, it also is the intention of ACRIN to make the images available to other investigators who wish to perform their own research where such image sets will be useful. In developing its policy for the use of its images, ACRIN leaders worked with the National Cancer Institute and corporations sponsoring ACRIN research to provide a balance that recognized the rights of the trial team researchers and sponsoring agencies but still allowed for appropriate access by others wishing to use the images and linked data for research, for educational purposes, for development of new products, or to facilitate work leading to regulatory approval. Except in very unusual circumstances, ACRIN will not provide access to its database until a trial is closed to patient accrual. At that point, the trial team investigators, investigators at the sites that recruited patients, and any corporations that provided either funding or in-kind contributions that facilitated the trial have the right to exclusive use of the images for specifically requested purposes and a defined period (negotiated between the requesting parties and the ACRIN Media and Publications Committee). Aside from this, any other individual or entity can request the use of ACRIN image sets, again for specifically defined purposes. Additional considerations include the following: 1. No publication of ACRIN images is permitted until the primary paper resultant of the trial is published. Acad Radiol 2002; 9:996–997