Edinburgh Imaging

01 Oct 18. Biomedical Imaging Strategy

The European Institute for Biomedical Imaging Research (EIBIR) have recently published a Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) for Biomedical Imaging.

It presents current challenges in healthcare and highlights how innovative biomedical imaging can help address them. The strategic research agenda aims to encourage research funding mechanisms to include biomedical imaging. It was developed in collaboration with our shareholders representing scientific societies related to biomedical imaging, as well as EIBIR's Scientific Advisory Board.

The SRA identifies current challenges and needs in healthcare, illustrates how biomedical imaging and derived data can help to address these, and aims to stimulate dedicated research funding efforts. Medicine is currently moving towards a more tailored, patient-centric approach by providing personalised solutions for the individual patient. Innovation in biomedical imaging plays a key role in this process as it addresses the current needs for individualised prevention, treatment, therapy response monitoring, and image-guided surgery.

The use of non-invasive biomarkers facilitates better therapy prediction and monitoring, leading to improved patient outcomes. Innovative diagnostic imaging technologies provide information about disease characteristics which, coupled with biological, genetic and -omics data, will contribute to an individualised diagnosis and therapy approach.

In the emerging field of theranostics, imaging tools together with therapeutic agents enable the selection of best treatments and allow tailored therapeutic interventions.

For prenatal monitoring the use of advanced imaging technologies will ensure the early detection of anomalies or disease in prenatal development.

The use of biomedical imaging for diagnosis and management of lifestyle-induced diseases will help to avoid disease development through lifestyle changes.

The advanced application of artificial intelligence and machine learning in imaging will help to improve image interpretation and lead to better disease prediction, decision making, and treatment planning.

As biomedical imaging technologies and analysis of existing imaging data provide solutions to current challenges and needs in healthcare, appropriate funding for dedicated research is needed to implement the innovative approaches for the wellbeing of citizens and patients.

Full Report - European Institute for Biomedical Imaging Research: Strategic Research Agenda