Based on Northeastern University, Engineering Research Center of Medical Imaging and Intelligent Analysis, Ministry of Education, was approved in 2013. The director of this center is Prof. Yan Kang, and the director of academic/engineering committee is Prof. Wei Qian. There are 28 permanent staff and about 40 flexible staff in this center.
The main research directions of this center include (1) Advanced imaging technology and methodology; (2) Cloud platform of medical imaging; (3) Intelligent analysis of medical imaging. In the first direction, the research focuses on the specialized CT (e.g., the dental CT, the breast CT), Micro-CT, multiple energy/spectral CT, Fusion CT of X-ray and fluorescence, CT based on Vehicle, Cloud CT; the deep learning based iterative reconstruction algorithm; the geometry correction, ghost reduction and system optimization; the advanced multiple spectrum imaging and the functional near-infrared spectroscopy imaging system (fNIRS). In the second direction, the works focus on the framework of medical imaging processing, the processing methods for large scale medical imaging, the component library of medical imaging processing algorithm, the imaging database, the distributed access protocol of medical images, etc. In the third direction, the computer aided diagnosis systems are developed for lung cancer, breast cancer; the accurate models for the diagnosis, response of therapy and prognosis prediction are constructed using artificial intelligent techniques.
There is the working space of 1262 square meter for the research, experiment and administration. More than 30 research equipments and platforms are available, including CT, MRI, ultrasound scanner, camera of spectral imaging and fundus imaging, the platform of lung imaging analysis, and the platform of breast cancer imaging analysis. The equipments and platforms can help design and implement new medical imaging system, the cloud platform of medical imaging, and the analysis methods of artificial intelligence.
Since 2013, the center has achieved many key techniques, received more 20 patents. The developed Micro-CT and the cloud of medical imaging have been located in the international frontiers, and applied in many hospitals.
The symbolic achievements of research include: (1) the prototype of CT based on Vehicle;
(2) the prototype of multiple energy/spectral CT;
(3) The GATE simulation of the PET system and the fusion CT of X-ray and fluorescence;
(4) The design of cloud CT; (4) a serial of intelligent analysis algorithms of CT lung images.