ASTROnews: IHE-RO: Registration of Multi-Modality Images
By Charles M. Able, M.S., Member, IHE-RO Committee
Have you ever wanted to use diagnostic or functional images to help localize the target but were told, “We can’t read those images on our system”?
ASTRO’s Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise – Radiation Oncology (IHE-RO) initiative can help you with this problem and many others. IHE-RO works to address interoperability and information sharing issues between various radiation oncology vendor systems. The IHE-RO process begins with the IHE-RO Planning Committee, which sends a request for use cases to the radiation oncology community. A use case illustrates issues that arise in radiation oncology practice that could be solved through improved interoperability. Originating from a use case submission, IHE-RO has a process to facilitate the registration and use of CT, PET, PET-CT and MR images in radiation oncology. Currently, image registration can take place on dedicated imaging workstations, treatment planning systems, applications in the treatment management system and in diagnostic radiology workstations and should be readily transferable between these systems. The IHE-RO Multi-Modality Registration integration profile uses existing DICOM RT objects and clarifies their use for spatial registration. The Multi-Modality Registration integration profile specifically defines how DICOM RT objects for spatial registration and the images themselves are created, stored, queried, retrieved, processed and displayed. In addition, the frame of reference for each dataset is reorganized such that all images reside in a common frame of reference having the same origin, orientation and dimension scaling. Hence, this integration profile provides each vendor with an accepted interaction process so images can be transferred between systems.
The Multi-Modality Registration profile was first tested at the 2008 IHE-RO Connectathon at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and again tested at the 2009 Connectathon at ASTRO headquarters in Fairfax, Va. Several vendors have tested this profile during the past Connectathons and passed. A list of vendors who have integrated this profile in their released products and their integration statements can be found at www.astro.org/Research/ResearchHighlights/IHERO.
When purchasing your next upgrade or new system, make sure your system has the most advanced registration interoperability design. Require the vendor to adhere to the IHE-RO Multi-Modality Registration integration profile by including the proper language in your request for proposal or purchase order. Learn more about this profile at http://wiki.ihe.net/index.php?title=Multimodality_Registration_for_Radiation_Oncology.
You can participate in the IHE-RO initiative by identifying other integration problems in radiation oncology. Simply write a one page summary of the problem you have experienced and submit it via e-mail to ihero@astro.org, on the wiki at http://wiki.ihe.net/index.php?title=Radiation_Oncology#Use_Case_Wish_List or by mail to ASTRO Research Department, 8280 Willow Oaks Corporate Drive, Suite 500, Fairfax, VA 22031.
Able is an assistant professor of radiation oncology at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C.