by
John R. Fischer, Senior Reporter | November 26, 2018
The Center recently became the first cloud-based MR research center with the deployment this summer of its Flywheel data management suite on to the Google Cloud. In addition to storing huge amounts of data, the initiative enables researchers working at different sites on campus as well as those at partnership institutions to access data obtained from one another without the need for manual transport, and other slower, less secure means, yielding more efficient research and collaboration.
Though in the beginning stages, the Center has already attracted interest from institutions in the U.S., China and India wishing to replicate the model. Vaughan says he perceives similar initiatives around the cloud arising in the future and bringing greater access to necessary biomedical diagnostics and therapies worldwide.
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Much interest surrounding AI's role in MR is focused
on image detection and interpretation, as well as
tumor segmentation and speeding up scans.
“MR has only been delivered to 10 percent of the world’s population, says the World Health Organization,” said Vaughan. “With the cloud, we can reach the rest of the world quite literally to provide access to MR as well as other very safe and very powerful tools in medicine and science. Our cloud-based center facilitates less redundancy of equipment and staff for maintenance and support. It’s also a nice way to have a distributed lab around the world. I can run a lab right here from my desk with the power of the cloud.”
Questions regarding gadolinium fuel innovation
Much discussion over the last few years has surrounded the use of gadolinium, the workhorse of MR contrast agents. For over a decade, the scientific community has known that gadolinium brings certain risks to patients with renal insufficiencies, but more recent evidence that the agent can accumulate in the brain has left many experts and regulators questioning its reputation as a safe source of contrast.
One high profile case was the lawsuit brought by action star Chuck Norris, and his wife, Gena, against 11 drug companies last November, alleging that the injection of gadolinium-based contrast agents (GBCAs) in Gena during a series of MR scans led her to develop gadolinium deposition disease and cost the couple more than $2 million in out-of-pocket costs for hospitalizations and treatments.
