Valencia (EFE).- The Universitat Politècnica de València is leading a project to make more than 60 million medical images of cancer available to the scientific and health community in an environment prepared for the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools that allow identify more accurate diagnoses and personalized therapies.
The UPV team, through the Institute of Instrumentation for Molecular Imaging, a joint center of the UPV and the CSIC, will build a system that will link existing oncology image banks and that will allow new studies to be carried out on clinical data from of 21 large healthcare centers in 12 European countries.
The EUCAIM consortium and the European Commission have announced the official launch of the European Cancer Imaging Infrastructure (EUCAIM), the most important in Europe, as reported by the UPV.
The coordinator of the UPV team, Ignacio Blanquer Espert, explains that he will offer a medical imaging data search engine for research that will help discover relevant data in any of the affiliated image banks, as well as analyze them with advanced computing resources without having to download them. .
European Cancer Imaging Initiative
The project will make it possible to share image data, ensuring control by providers, according to the expert, who stresses that this project aims to put cancer patients at the center by encouraging them to become “image donors” for research, without that the leak of your personal data is jeopardized.
“The platform will also be an important opportunity to carry out open challenges in which students and researchers compete to create the best tools to solve specific challenges in cancer management, also promoting the dissemination of science in society and its involvement”, has added.
EUCAIM is the cornerstone of the European Cancer Imaging Initiative, initiated by the European Commission and flagship of the European Plan to Beat Cancer, whose objective is innovation and deployment of digital technologies for personalized and precise treatment and care for help clinical decision-making, favor the most accurate diagnosis, and select the most appropriate treatment.
It thus contributes to the establishment of a predictive and personalized care medicine. Co-financed by the European Union and by the Department of Innovation of the Generalitat Valenciana, EUCAIM brings together 76 partners from 14 EU Member States, specialists in skills in oncological imaging, large databases and ethical data management.
The technical coordination falls on the European Institute for Biomedical Imaging Research (EIBIR), while the scientific coordination of the project is directed by Luis Martí-Bonmatí, Principal Investigator of the Biomedical Imaging Research Group (GIBI2) of the Health Research Institute La Fe (IIS LaFe) and director of the Medical Imaging Clinic Area of Hospital La Fe.
Researchers from the University of Valencia, the Instituto Tecnológico de Informática and the companies Quibim and S2 Grupo also participate in the project.
“Our ultimate goal is to answer specific clinical questions that improve the entire process of diagnosis, treatment and follow-up of the cancer patient”, they conclude from the EUCAIM consortium.