The American College of Radiology Imaging Network (ACRIN): Research Educational Opportunities for Academic Radiology

Abstract

This is the first of a series of editorials that will be attributed to acquainting the academic radiology community with the American College of Radiology Imaging Network (ACRIN). As Chair of ACRIN, I am grateful to the Editor of Academic Radiology, Dr Stanley Baum, for this opportunity. ACRIN is a freestanding clinical trials cooperative group funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Its mission is to conduct clinical trials of diagnostic imaging and image-guided therapy technologies in order, ultimately, to improve the length and the quality of lives of cancer patients. ACRIN intends to achieve this overriding objective by pursuing a number of strategies. Among these are to attract the best imaging researchers to participate in ACRIN trials and to train imaging physicians and scientists in how to conduct more rigorous clinical research. With regard to these strategies, ACRIN could not be more timely. The specialty of radiology has long recognized that with few exceptions, radiologists have not been especially competitive for research funding, and that, overall, the quality of imaging research has suffered as a result. Few radiology departments have been able to expend the resources needed to focus training on developing premier researchers or mount high-quality, multidisciplinary, multi-institutional clinical trials. The imaging technology explosion of the past 3 decades has been fueled by descriptive writing; however, it is evident that the transition in imaging research now under way—from gross anatomy and pathology to molecular and functional investigation—will not be sustained by this approach. Failure to participate fully in future imaging technology development and assessment threatens radiologists’ access to these technologies when they become clinically applicable. Already, a number of other specialties have involved themselves in planning for how their constituencies will practice molecular imaging. However, there is greater opportunity than ever before for well-trained radiologist researchers to achieve federal funding. The National Institutes of Health will soon complete a 5-year doubling of its funding base. Thanks to the Academy of Radiology Research and the support it mustered among radiologists, the new National Institutes of Health institute, the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, has begun operations that will facilitate funding for cross-cutting research (ie, applicable to multiple organ systems and diseases). The NCI Biomedical Imaging Program, under the direction of Daniel Sullivan, MD, has been on an incredible course of expansion, including the formation of ACRIN. As a result, the potential of imaging research has gained new respect at NCI. The missing piece of the puzzle is how to develop radiologist investigators capable of competing in this flourishing environment. ACRIN intends to play an important role in this regard. ACRIN has established mechanisms to support clinical research education and training that are relevant to academic radiologists at all stages of their careers: 1. ACRIN is an open organization that facilitates the easy entry of individuals into ACRIN activities. No memAcad Radiol 2002; 9:561–562