February 2025
We write to inform you that the Quantitative Medical Imaging Coalition (QMIC, www.qmic.org) has formed as the successor organization to the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) Quantitative Imaging Biomarkers Alliance (QIBA). As you know, the QIBA mission has been to improve the value and practicality of quantitative imaging biomarkers by reducing variability across sites, devices, patients, and time. With the efforts of hundreds of volunteers from more than 150 organizations, QIBA has made substantial progress toward those goals by integrating measurement science (metrology) into the art of medical imaging.
It has been inspiring to witness continued enthusiasm and sustained volunteer efforts by QIBA participants with volunteers from 15 out of 20 of the original QIBA Biomarker Committees continuing their work independently in 2024. Moreover, uninterrupted support has been expressed by collaborative professional organizations (American Association of Physicists in Medicine /AAPM, International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine /ISMRM, American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine/ AIUM, American Lung Association /ALA, European Imaging Biomarkers Alliance /EIBALL, Society of Nuclear Medicine & Molecular Imaging /SNMMI, Society of Skeletal Radiology/SSR) and industry partners which recognize the value of QIBA contributions and ongoing efforts.
In 2023 the RSNA revised its support for quantitative imaging by creating a new committee called the Quantitative Imaging Committee (QUIC). Concurrently, therefore, QIBA leadership and the members of the QIBA Sustainability and Implementation Committee (QSIC) worked collectively with RSNA leadership and staff, and the co-chairs of QUIC, to leverage the full breadth of efforts of these volunteer activities in quantitative imaging.
As a result of those discussions, we have created QMIC as a successor organization, complementary to QUIC, to continue pursuing the goals of QIBA.
The mission of QMIC is to transform personalized medicine by advancing the science and implementation of quantitative medical imaging, with an expanded effort toward clinically relevant quantitative imaging standardization. QMIC will advance quantitative imaging in clinical practice and clinical trials by benefiting from the loyalty and commitment of volunteers from academic and clinical institutions, industry, regulatory agencies, metrology institutes and funding agencies in the described activities.
The structure of QMIC has been drawn from the experience of QIBA so that the efforts of the various BCs remain synchronized. Continuing our existing partnerships with professional organizations, such as AAPM, AIUM, World Federation for Ultrasound in Medicine /WFUMB, SNMMI, ISMRM, and others, as well as international organizations such as Japan Quantitative Imaging Biomarkers Alliance /JQIBA, EIBALL, and National Imaging Facility/NIF (Australia’s advanced imaging network) is a key component of our strategy going forward.
QMIC also welcomes new partnerships with all interested stakeholders, such as ACR, The Academy, various subspecialty and standards societies, government agencies as well as industry partners and industry consortia/organizations across medical imaging, MedTech, pharmaceutical and data science/AI. QMIC will maintain regular communication with QUIC/RSNA. QUIC plans to identify 2 or 3 general medical condition use-cases, e.g. neuro-degeneration or breast cancer, each year to create a roadmap for implementation and has a focus on informatics and adoption. QMIC Biomarker Committees will create the Profiles and other content needed to give substance to the QUIC roadmaps, as well as address QI needs identified by other activities.
Educating users of clinical imaging about the premise and value of quantitative imaging will also be a priority for QMIC. The scope of QMIC activities will include aspects of quantitative imaging methods beyond the somewhat narrow definition of biomarkers. QMIC will also invite participation from various disease-based communities, to broaden the modality-based or other assay-based diagnostic and treatment monitoring decision trees.
We welcome all who want to actively participate in this effort. To make us aware of your interest, or to ask for more information, please contact either of the current co-chairs, Gudrun Zahlmann, PhD (gudrun.zahlmann@ieee.org) or Caroline Chung, MD (cchung3@mdanderson.org). We look forward to hearing from you.
Very sincerely,
Gudrun and Caroline
On Behalf of the QMIC Steering Committee
