Virtual Meetings Archive

In this annual virtual meeting, two new research directions in the field of Hyperpolarized Agents and Applications will be presented by experts.

In this session, we will focus on two current developments in the use of MR imaging for ensuring drug safety during the drug development stage and beyond. Our first speaker, Paul Hockings, Ph.D., will provide insights from the IMI TRISTAN project on dynamic contrast imaging in the liver for monitoring hepatic drug safety in drug development. Our second speaker, neuroradiologist Meike Vernooij, M.D., Ph.D., will introduce amyloid-related imaging abnormalities as a safety endpoint in anti-amyloid therapies for Alzheimer’s disease and will show how these endpoints translate from drug development to a standard-of-care setting.

It is now around 25 years since two publications proposed models for hemodynamic responses that ended up being widely known as the "canonical hemodynamic response function (HRF)" and heavily influenced the analysis of fMRI data. In this webinar, we've invited one of the authors of those early studies to discuss the context of their work back then, and if and how they are relevant now, a quarter century later. We will also have two talks from study group members on the variability of actual hemodynamic responses across subjects, brain regions, tasks, and even between trials of a single task.

The Clinical-Translational MRI challenge aims to improve the (patient) impact of the ISMRM community’s research work through focus on addressing specific unmet clinical needs that are expertly defined by ISMRM members. This virtual meeting will introduce the 2024-25 edition of the Clinical Translation: Unmet Needs Challenge, through which we will invite our members to submit unmet needs, and then present them in a Power Pitch session before allowing 9 months for others to propose, develop, and validate solutions.

This virtual meeting will explore essential early steps in a needs-focused innovation process, including identification, scoping, and specification of unmet needs. Using examples, we will discuss a framework for developing Unmet Needs Statements that include essential background, must-have and nice-to-have features, and questions for clarifying how solving the need will change clinical practice. We will describe well-framed and less-well-framed examples of Unmet Needs Statements in different clinical areas for discussion, along with techniques to guide members in writing Unmet Needs for the Challenge.

Explore innovative approaches to enhancing MRI accessibility through hackathons and open-source solutions. Discover how collaborative efforts are driving advancements in portable and low-field MRI technology, making it more accessible to diverse communities worldwide. Engage with experts, share insights, and learn about the latest developments in this dynamic field. Don't miss this opportunity to be part of the conversation shaping the future of MRI technology.

Creating an academic research culture that values and respects individuals from diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives is crucial for the MRI research community. A positive and inclusive culture can enhance collaborations, improve professional well-being, and lead to better innovation and research outcomes. This one-hour webinar organized by the ISMRM EDI Task Force aims to explore the current state of diversity and inclusion in MRI research. Three experts will share their insights on the following topics: (1) the current state, challenges, and recommendations for promoting diversity and inclusion in radiology and radiology research with regard to gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and gender identity; (2) the findings of a Wellcome Trust study focusing on researchers' perceptions of their work environment and strategies to promote inclusivity better; and (3) how strategies from the business sector can be adapted to promote a positive and inclusive culture in academic research.

The ISMRM Diffusion Study Group is hosting a virtual meeting focused on motion correction strategies for diffusion MRI. As diffusion MRI acquisitions become more readily adopted in the clinic, the goal of this meeting is to provide an overview of different motion correction strategies for acquisition and post-processing in the brain, body, and heart through three talks presented by key experts working in the domains of neuroimaging, body, and cardiac diffusion MRI. The virtual meeting will conclude with a brief panel discussion among the speakers and moderated by two experts in the field on the advantages and disadvantages associated with various methodologies. Attendees can expect to come away from the virtual meeting with a holistic understanding of the evolving landscape of motion correction strategies for diffusion MRI in different anatomical regions and their implications for medical research and clinical practice.

Diffusion MRI is a powerful technique to interrogate tissue microstructure by probing the diffusion of water. Over the past several years, cardiac diffusion MRI methods have been developed and used to assess 3D microarchitecture in the myocardium that underlies the mechanical and electrical function of the heart. These developments have resulted in a new understanding of the heart in health and disease. This virtual meeting is intended to present state-of-the-art cardiac diffusion MRI methodology and provide perspective on the growing role of diffusion MRI in cardiac imaging.

We are getting ready for another ISMRM-ISMRT Annual Meeting! Our chair and vice-chair will share program highlights for this year. Also, let's know more about the host city, Singapore! Do you know what is the most popular dish over there? Discover with us in our next virtual meeting. It will be open to non-members, too.

Networking and collaboration are not only essential for significant advancements in the scientific field but also serve as valuable avenues for gaining new experiences and enhancing research quality. Within the perfusion community, we recognize the importance of these principles. In our upcoming meeting, four prominent perfusion-related networks—OSIPI, RenalMRI, BIDS, and GliMR—will provide updates on their work. Additionally, they will elaborate on the advantages of joining their respective networks and engage in discussions about the challenges they encounter.

This meeting focuses on leveraging ultra-high field (UHF) magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) and MRS-imaging (MRSI) applications with an emphasis on hardware advancements, sequence development for both proton and phosphorus spectroscopy in the brain and body, and their applications.

UHF-MR scanners, operating at magnetic field strengths of 7 Tesla and above, offer enhanced sensitivity & spectral resolution, making them a valuable tool for probing molecular & metabolic processes in-vivo. This meeting seeks to explore recent advancements in UHF MRS(I), focusing on hardware innovations, sequence development in both 1H & X-nuclei MRS(I), and applications in (clinical) neuroscience.

This virtual meeting will focus on the biological effects from radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic radiation. For safety purposes, RF exposure from MRI is limited according to internationally recognized guidelines and standards. Notably, maximum specific absorption rate (SAR) limits are defined by specific averaging schemes and RF exposure durations, and these SAR limits serve as surrogates for core and local temperature elevations. Apart from MRI, the increased use of RF wireless technologies has prompted many new scientific developments. In this virtual meeting, James C. Lin, Ph.D., (Life Fellow, IEEE) will present a critical and analytical assessment of the safety of human exposure to RF radiation, including developments outside the MRI domain that may impact future safety guidelines and standards.

This virtual meeting aims to provide clinicians and scientists with the tools needed to build large open imaging databases. Two speakers with different backgrounds that will be able to provide complementary information. The first speaker is Sarina Rivera who is a general counsel working in biotechnology. She will provide a high-level overview of current legislative and regulatory laws involving data-sharing, including GDPR (European-based) and the recent USA state-based regulations (e.g., CCPA). The second speaker is Laure Fournier, a clinician leading the CHAIMELEON imaging repository to support resources for AI experimentation for cancer management.

Quantitative MRI techniques reveal promising markers for renal disease and could provide additional insights into kidney pathology characterization and disease progression in patients. The interest in renal MRI-derived biomarkers is driven by the potential to quantify morphological, microstructural, hemodynamic, and metabolic changes non-invasively and across the entire kidney parenchyma. Radiologists generally evaluate signals using intensity descriptors such as “hyperintense” or “hypointense” and use the expected signal appearance of various tissues and associated pathologies to render a differential diagnosis. However, this subjective analysis of relatively “weighted” images is only a fraction of the tissue property information that could be provided by MRI techniques. The very concept of “weighting” can start to break down when more than one tissue is being compared. In addition, limitations of current MRI technologies include variable image acquisition across scanners, limited reproducibility of images, and known inter-reader variability in image interpretation. Quantitative MRI provides a unique and discrete analysis of tissue parameters and holds promise in addressing some of these limitations. We have now entered an era in which it is possible to obtain rapid quantitative measurements of numerous physiologically relevant tissue properties—diffusion, perfusion, fat content, iron content, blood oxygen level, tissue elasticity, T1, T2, etc. Each property has found scientific and clinical utility in various applications. With the advancement of the computing power of modern MRI scanners, the images can be post-processed and quantitative maps be generated on the scanner console, ready for review as soon as the acquisition is complete. Such quantitative MRI methods in kidney imaging are vital because they are relatively unbiased as compared with qualitative descriptions. In this webinar, we intend to review the quantitative methods and its applications in the clinic.

This virtual meeting will discuss ongoing and future initiatives of the Low Field MRI study group. As a new study group, we want to host a discussion of activities that may be of interest to our growing community. We encourage you to unmute and share ideas! We will first have an update on the “Low Field MRI Roadmap” white paper that originated at ISMRM 2023 in Toronto, and then have broader discussion of other possible initiatives including open data repositories, opportunities for sharing (hardware, software, protocols, etc.), training for clinicians and new users of low field MRI, our next ISMRM workshop, and more.

It's time for the third edition of the President's Challenge. It's a way for ISMRT members to show the value of being part of this Society. As a member of the ISMRT, you register to host an event, choose a package, and organize a 1-hour meeting with your colleagues. We have done all the upfront work of creating several different packages you can choose from. Each package includes a PowerPoint presentation to support you in leading the meeting. Embedded in the slides are videos on the topic of choice. Details on providing attendees certificates of attendance or CE/CPD credit will also be included. It’s that simple! At this virtual meeting, ISMRT President Glenn Cahoon will talk about 2024 packages and two talks from expert MR physicists, engaging educators, and long-term supporters of the ISMRT educational programs: Martin Graves and Donald McRobbie. So, are you up for a Challenge?

The DSG trainee day is a fully online workshop that will provide plenty of opportunities for one-on-one discussions, informal networking, and stimulate interaction between trainees and established researchers.

The DSG day features events split across three time zones: Asia/Australasia (1:00-7:00 UTC), Europe/Africa (9:00-15:00 UTC), and North/South Americas (17:00-23:00 UTC). Each time zone will feature educational lectures, scientific talks, power-pitches, poster sessions and social activities.

The field of imaging psychiatric disorders has experienced continuous growth & expansion over the last few decades, fueled by emerging cutting-edge technologies and an evolving scope of view. In the "MR in Psychiatry" virtual meeting, we will delve into the rich history of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) in Psychiatry. This engaging event aims to explore not only the past achievements but also the future potential of these techniques in transforming our understanding of psychiatric disorders. Join us as we discuss the latest advancements, novel methodologies, and groundbreaking research in psychoradiology, paving the way for advancements in psychiatric care and personalized treatment approaches.

This lecture, given at the Society of Radiographers of South Africa (SORSA) meeting in August, focuses on MSK protocols.

This webinar is part of the ISMRM-WFPI Pediatric MRI webinar series, an ongoing collaboration between ISMRM & the World Federation of Pediatric Imaging (WFPI). Together, these two organizations are uniting to improve quality in and access to pediatric MRI globally through knowledge dissemination & networking.

Following on from the third webinar that focused on artifacts and mimics with a "neuro" flavour, this fourth webinar will be looking at technical factors and/or pathology mimics in the lung, body, and musculoskeletal systems, including prenatally, which can contribute to diagnostic challenges. Our speakers are physicians & scientists from ISMRM & WFPI. They will share examples of how they problem-solve dilemmas encountered day-to-day in the acquisition and/or interpretation of pediatric MRI across different ages and body parts.

In this virtual meeting, we will look closer at functional imaging of the subcortical areas. Both from an image acquisition point & from an analysis point, there are plenty of challenges for those looking for good quality fMRI results. Two talks will each dive into one of those aspects: first, Simon Robinson will speak about acquisition techniques that are especially suited for the subcortex & then Marta Bianciardi will speak about atlasing & connectomics of brainstem nuclei specifically.

Pulseq is a vendor-independent MR pulse programming platform that allows an MRI sequence to be created and analyzed in interactive programming environments such as MATLAB or Python and executed on hardware using sequence-agnostic interpreters. Mature interpreters for the Pulseq specification now exist for Siemens and GE scanners, with possibly more to follow in the future. This course will take place over three half-days and will cover the following: (1) basic Pulseq concepts for beginners; (2) advanced sequence implementation and analysis tools; (3) vendor-specific implementation details and workflow; and (4) examples of applications and third-party tools from the user community.

This virtual seminar will present recent advances in low field MRI during pregnancy. Talks will describe the technical development, human application, and future clinical potential of 0.55T MRI methods for evaluation of placental and fetal anatomy & physiology. Speakers will delve into emerging research areas, exploring innovative applications of low field MRI in maternal & fetal health. The audience will gain an in-depth understanding of the current state of low field MRI research in pregnancy, including the advantages & limitations of these novel systems. Furthermore, the seminar will feature discussions on the potential implications of these advancements for prenatal care & diagnostics, offering a comprehensive overview of the field's exciting prospects.

Cardiovascular MRI has seen continual growth & expansion in both clinical applications & available technology. There is a push to make imaging faster & more robust using accelerated acquisitions & advanced image reconstruction. In addition, there is ongoing research into the role of artificial intelligence for cardiac MRI applications. Clinically, cardiac MRI continues to find new clinical applications for both adult and pediatric patients and to establish its superiority to other imaging methods. The goal of this virtual meeting is to review the latest developments in cardiac MRI & discuss emerging trends.

This virtual meeting will answer the following questions regarding imaging neurofluids:

• What are the main macro flows in the craniospinal system (arteries, sinuses, veins, and CSF compartments)?
• Which MRI sequence should be used to measure these flows (ungated or gated 2D PCMRI or 4D PCMRI, RT PCMRI)?
• What are the main advantages and limitations of these different sequences?
• What will be the future of MRI in the field of neurofluid flow measurements?
• How we can post-process such images?
• How can neurofluid flows be useful in clinical applications?
• What are the main parameters of interests in the clinic?
• What will be the future of MRI in the field of neurofluid flows?

The meeting will focus on strategies for specific cell & biomarker targeting. Speakers will present novel approaches & contrast agents to facilitate identification of specific cells or biomarkers for in vivo imaging.

The deadline for abstract submissions to the 2024 Annual meeting is fast approaching. Writing an abstract & presenting a poster is a great opportunity to get in touch with the ISMRT community. It’s also the chance to show how your site/ country is working on the field of MRI. If you are wondering how to do it, we are here to help! This virtual meeting will present the tips and tricks to submit a successful abstract. You will also have the opportunity to ask questions to members of abstract & annual meeting program committees. Don’t miss it!

Electrical Properties Tomography (EPT) is gaining increasing popularity as a way to map the electrical conductivity and permittivity of human tissues non-invasively using clinical MRI systems and conventional MRI sequences. However, a series of assumptions is required to solve the relevant equations underlying the reconstruction problem, which has led to the development of a range of solutions and approaches in the field of EPT. As the electrical properties of tissues can be modified, for example in tumors, EPT has great potential as a clinical application. Yet, the current lack of standardization of EPT approaches and lack of reproducibility studies hamper current clinical implementation. This virtual meeting is focused on the role of the standardization of EPT as an essential step toward its clinical use. We will review an ongoing EPT reproducibility challenge, have an outlook on the maturity of EPT from a metrological perspective, and conclude with a review of the clinical utility of phase-based conductivity values.

This virtual meeting will cover new acquisition & post-processing methods that have recently been developed to improve the image quality & reproducibility of hyperpolarized MRI.

This virtual meeting is organized by both the Perfusion Study Group and Cardiac MR Study Group. The meeting will focus on the stress cardiac MR perfusion imaging for quantification of myocardial blood flow and reserve to evaluate the severity of stenosis in patients with coronary artery disease. We invited three experts in this field. Both the clinical & technical aspects of first-pass MRI using a gadolinium-based contrast agent will be discussed. In addition, the development of various cardiac arterial spin labeling techniques will also be reviewed. The audience will gain an understanding of the clinical value and the current state of CMR myocardial perfusion as well as advantages & limitations of both contrast and non-contrast CMR methods.

This virtual meeting of the Musculoskeletal Study Group will focus on imaging muscle and joint function and will also contain a business part. There are two presentations from members of the study group: one will be focusing on muscle and the other one on the lumbar spine. The muscle presentation will provide an overview of the current methods for the visualization and quantification of muscle contraction efficacy in MRI, with particular focus on electrically induced muscle contractions and recent applications to neuromuscular diseases in adult and pediatric populations. The lumbar spine presentation will describe studies that focus on the utilization of upright MRI to explore aspects of lumbar spine adaptation to various external stimuli, with a focus on active-duty military members. Specifically, the postural response of the spinal column and the health of the intervertebral discs in response to simulated operational positions, load carriage, training, exercise, and end-range positions will be discussed. We will also review the business meeting during this year’s ISMRM Annual Meeting and gauge interest on other future study group activities.

Several human MR systems above 10 Tesla are being developed. There has been a growing interest in ultra-high field MR above 10 Tesla in humans in order to further push the limits for in vivo human MR technologies. The higher magnetic field strength enables higher spatial resolution and more detailed images of anatomical structures, which may open up new avenues for advanced research in neuroscience and medical imaging, potentially unveiling novel insights into the intricate workings of the human brain and body. Nevertheless, these exciting advancements come with their share of challenges as well. For instance, higher magnetic field strengths demand specialized hardware and radiofrequency coils, making these systems considerably more expensive and complex to design and maintain. Moreover, patient safety remains a crucial issue, as the effects of prolonged exposure to ultra-high magnetic fields are not yet fully understood. In this virtual meeting, we invite experts in the field to discuss and present hardware development, simulation works, comparative studies to lower field strength, and other updates for human MR systems above 10 Tesla. The goal is to present challenges and opportunities of MR above 10 Tesla to a community increasingly interested in ultra-high field MR.

This virtual meeting will assess current advancements in temperature mapping for MR safety monitoring, the monitoring and evaluation of thermal therapies, and monitoring temperature increase around implants.

MR guided radiation therapy treatment is a growing field that involves a diverse multidisciplinary team with varying experience and knowledge in MRI. Specific requirements for MR images need to be met in order for them to be used for accurate planning of radiotherapy treatment, particularly if they are to be used as the primary, or only, data set.

We will discuss the limitations of diagnostic MRI scans and the reason why MRI protocols specifically designed for use in radiotherapy are necessary. This session aims to outline the basic physics and minimum imaging requirements for radiotherapy planning and provide an opportunity for education and discussion across the multiple professional groups involved in this area.

Introducing topics in Neuro Oncology on Glioma imaging and advancements utilizing PET/MR. The webinar will also focus topics on pediatric imaging.

MR professionals from this year’s host country will discuss the state of MR in Canada, from safety and professional points of view. It's a great opportunity to know better about the routine and perspectives of ISMRT's long-term partner.

This webinar features Cathy MacDonald, former police crisis negotiator, and Prof. Derek Jones, the Father of Power Pitches. The main focus of this webinar is to help improve your presentation skills and specifically tailor your message to the ISMRM community. After all, the way you present your work is crucial to engage with other scientists in our field.

In this meeting, the MRS Code and Data Sharing Committee will update the whole MRS community on their newest efforts. Firstly, Kelley Swanberg will present 1HMRS-VERI (the Proton MRS Validation Effort Resource Initiative), a special endeavor to provide a centralized means for sharing spectral datasets that can be used to quantitatively validate proton magnetic resonance spectral processing and quantification tools. Secondly, John LaMaster and Antonia Kaiser will introduce the plan to write a community best practices paper on synthetic data in the field of MRS.

This virtual seminar will discuss the use of preclinical models (rodents, macaque, sheep) for studying the placenta using MRI. Talks will cover a variety of imaging techniques and describe how these models can aid in the development of new therapies and treatments for placental disorders. The audience will gain an understanding of the current state of placental MRI research, advantages and limitations of various animal models of the human placenta, as well as the potential for future advancements in this field.

Tumour characterisation via non-invasive “virtual biopsies” holds great promise in oncology, with applications ranging from tumour screening, diagnosis and staging, to treatment planning and prognosis prediction. However, using MRI signals on the millimetre scale to obtain microstructural information equivalent to that from invasive histopathology with targeted staining and micron resolution is challenging. Diffusion MRI promises sensitivity to cellular features and is already being used within oncological practices. But does it yet provide virtual biopsies that can be reliably used in the clinic?

Join our discussion with three excellent speakers who will present current opinions and recent advances from research to the clinic, and from the body to the brain.

The Annual Meeting will present a series of multi-language talks. Let's show how global our society can be!

The organizers will give the highlights of their sessions in Portuguese, Japanese, French, Spanish and Chinese. Call your colleagues 'cause it's going to be open to all, members and non-members! It's social time!

With a booming increase in the use of implantable medical devices, it's crucial to pay extra attention to the safety of children who are becoming a rapidly growing portion of recipients. The pediatric medical device market is expected to soar by 10% yearly, reaching a staggering $54 billion by 2028. This trend is only set to intensify due to recent regulatory measures and heightened parental awareness.

Despite this exponential growth, there is a concerning lack of well-defined MRI safety guidelines for pediatric patients with conductive implants. Take the example of children with cardiovascular implantable electronic devices (CIEDs). Most of the CIEDs scanned clinically in children are off-label, and even if deemed MR-Conditional for adults, their safety in children remains uncertain. Meanwhile, epicardial devices are not MR-Conditional at all. The 2021 PACES guideline provided a class IIb recommendation for MRI of pediatric CIED patients with epicardial or abandoned leads, but it lacks clear guidance on risk assessment. As a result, many institutions are forced to either deny MRI services to the majority of pediatric CIED patients or blindly rely on adult studies for all scans. Both options carry potential risks and limitations, highlighting the dire need for an open dialogue to advance the field.

In light of this pressing issue, we have invited experts in the field of MRI safety from industry, academia, regulatory sciences, as well as physicians and imaging technologists in charge of managing MRI in pediatric patients with devices to share their experience and challenges with the hope of moving the field forward.

This session will focus on the use of genetics and imaging data for therapeutic target identification and applications of cardiac MR in clinical trials in familial cardiomyopathies. The first presentation will give an overview of how MR imaging derived phenotypes, linked to genetics, can provide insights into human biology, disease status, and potential therapeutic targets. The second presentation will review the established, advanced, and emerging applications of CMR, and reflect on future opportunities and potential barriers encountered in its use in cardiovascular clinical trials.

The virtual meeting aims to discuss and address the current gap in the clinical translation of quantitative MR techniques. Three talks will address various aspects of the gap. These include:

1. the challenges and opportunities in clinical translation;
2. the variations and standardization of qMR sequences; and
3. the variations and standardization of qMR analysis tools.

Finally, we will have a panel discussion on how to bridge the gaps

The theme of the workshop addresses one of the key topics within renal MR, that of the clinical and research uses of contrast enhanced MR. There has been considerable research, clinical practice, and policymaking devoted to the benefits and risks of this topic in recent years, and our society and study group is perfectly poised for a review and dialogue about this important sector of imaging.

Innovations in MR development have great potential for commercialization, successfully illustrated with liver MRE. Yet, other applications have not undergone the clinical trials necessary to motivate clinical adoption. During our last SG meeting, we identified the need to foster the clinical adoption of brain MRE, and believe that robust inversion algorithms are imperative for the success of this effort. We intend to launch an internal simulation challenge, that will likely lead to innovation, worth protecting and/or sharing. This virtual meeting will provide guidance to navigate between IP and open-source science and to find/define scenarios that could reconcile both worlds.

QSM aims to compute the magnetic susceptibility distribution of biological tissue from MRI phase measurements. In voxels where both positive (paramagnetic) and negative (diamagnetic) susceptibility sources are present, their contributions to local phase could cancel out making the true underlaying susceptibility sources hard to recover using QSM. However, quantifying separately the negative susceptibility sources such as myelin, and positive susceptibility sources such as iron, could be crucial for the assessment of some pathophysiological processes, such as demyelination and remyelination in multiple sclerosis where myelin and iron can colocalize within lesion voxels.

Recently, several new methods have been proposed to disentangle the contributions of negative and positive susceptibility sources and to compute maps of negative and positive susceptibility. The three presentations in this virtual meeting will review these methods, their potential applications and highlight their differences in terms of data acquisition and signal modeling.

The presentations will be followed by a discussion on the viability of the presented methods and future directions as well as limitations and obstacles that need to be overcome for susceptibility source separation.

Overview: In this virtual meeting with a clinical focus, four speakers will present and debate the pros and cons of the application of perfusion imaging techniques (including arterial spin labeling and contrast based perfusion imaging techniques) in their clinical practice.

Let's gather together to welcome new members, introduce your executive members and share about the incredible resources available on the ISMRT website and upcoming ISMRT activities in the region. We will have a bit of trivia and fun along the way, as well.

Overview: This 1-hour event is the inaugural Virtual Meeting of the Low Field MRI Study Group. The objective of the Low Field MRI Study Group is to facilitate the development and application of low field strength MRI technology (<1.0T), which includes hardware, software, and clinical translation. This webinar will feature an overview of the state-of-the-art in low field MRI plus a live demonstration of a new low field MRI technology to detect and remove electromagnetic interference.

In January 2023, a man was accompanying his mother for an MRI at an outpatient site in Sao Paulo, Brazil. He was carrying a loaded gun, which was pulled by the magnet and set off, the bullet hitting him. He died two weeks later, becoming the first MRI fatal accident reported in Brazil. But why does an accident like that still occur in 2023? What could be done to avoid such tragedy? In this virtual meeting, we are going to listen to stories from a Brazilian point of view and analyze all the potentials pitfalls. We will also study Brazilian safety norms in MRI procedures and discuss how other countries besides the US, such as the UK, deal with MRI safety. Do you think that MRI safety procedures need to be adapted for different regions of the world? Come and join us!

Overview: The goals of this Engineering Study Group virtual meeting are to:

1. Share successfully examples of open-source hardware projects that have been adopted at multiple sites. While ISMRM has given a lot of attention to open source software tools recently, we feel that hardware would benefit from more attention, since it can present additional challenges compared to software (e.g., safety testing, fabrication methods, test and measurement procedures, etc.).
2. Discuss the remaining obstacles and barriers to the sharing of hardware research tools, including finding appropriate funding mechanisms for dissemination, hiring staff with the requisite engineering expertise, dealing with institutional requirements and Intellectual Property considerations, etc.
3. Compile a list of Action Items that the Engineering Study Group can pursue to help overcome these obstacles moving forward.

The overarching aim is to catalyze faster scientific progress by encouraging open source sharing of hardware tools, so different research groups don’t need to “reinvent the wheel” in the course of conducting their research. As MRI research instrumentation has grown more sophisticated, we feel that this has become a significant barrier to progress.

Overview: The field of neurofluids is still developing incredibly fast both with respect to new insights into fundamental biological properties as well as with new MRI sequences to probe brain clearance in rodents and human subjects. In this virtual meeting we have two speakers who shaped the field of brain clearance over the years. Prof. Maiken Nedergaard has postulated the glymphatic system in 2012 and since then has made many discoveries on the physiology of brain clearance. Her latest discovery includes the existence of a fourth meningeal layer (SLYM) as published in 2023 in Science. Prof. Helene Benveniste has pioneered the MRI methods to image brain clearance in rodent’s brains. Her measurements of gadolinium-based contrast agent clearance after injection in the cisterna magna and the tracer kinetic analysis of these, have helped tremendously in understanding the dynamics of waste clearance. Recently, she is also focusing on non-invasive MRI techniques that can easily be translated to humans. In this Virtual Meeting these two researchers will update us on recent developments in brain clearance and present a forward looking perspective on it.

Overview: This virtual meeting is focused on career development for trainee and early career members of the ISMRM Cardiac MRI Study Group. The virtual session will include expertise and advice for different career paths, with six speakers arranged into three breakout rooms.

Schedule:
08:00-08:05 – Welcome
08:05-08:20 – Speaker introductions
08:20-08:50 – Breakout rooms
08:50-09:00 – Plenary & closing words

Overview: In this virtual meeting, the presenters will discuss the mechanisms underpinning the imaging data of a perfusion sequence, as well as what details need to be analyzed before, during, and after acquisition.

Overview: Hypoxia has been the most prominent predictive marker for response to radiation therapy. This virtual meeting will show the latest developments in hypoxia biomarker imaging using MRI. Both preclinical and clinical research will be highlighted by two distinguished speakers: Dr Stephen Brown and Professor James O'Connor.

Overview: Despite the added value of 7T MRI systems in the surgical planning for deep brain stimulation (DBS) demonstrated by some experts, these systems are still not commonly used even in centers equipped with such systems. The High Field Systems & Applications study group of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) and the World Society for Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery (WSSFN) have launched a survey to get better idea of the current practice in this field over the world. The goal was to better understand the needs, issues, potential benefits and remaining technological barriers that still to be overcome. This initiative leads to this joint virtual meeting that will tackle these points in order to improve the practice in this realm. During this virtual meeting, after an introduction with a presentation of the survey results, three functional neurosurgeons will present their approach and why they use (or not) ultra-high field (UHF) MRI in their practice. The talks will be followed by an open discussion led by two MRI experts specialized in the field of UHF in DBS.

Overview: In this virtual workshop, we will have 3 speakers who will talk about their work on imaging tumor microstructure using MRI.

Dr. Pathak will highlight how interdisciplinary research at the interface of engineering, medicine and design is needed to develop new hardware, software, and “wetware” tools for characterizing the structural and functional changes in the tumor microenvironment. I will illustrate how one can leverage multiscale and multimodality imaging approaches in conjunction with novel computational and visualization tools to revolutionize our understanding of cancer in the preclinical setting. This lecture will showcase: (i) “VascuViz”, a new multimodality and multiscale imaging and visualization pipeline for cancer systems biology; (ii) mini-microscopes for “life-cycle” brain tumor imaging; and (iii) image-based computational cancer biology.

Dr. Tadimalla will present recent and on-going work on the promise and limitations of quantitative mpMRI as response biomarkers of prostate cancer after radiation therapy. Tumor recurrence occurs in nearly half of prostate cancer patients treated with radiation therapy, and MRI biomarkers have shown potential as early response biomarkers and could potentially replace current blood biomarkers which suffer from low sensitivity and specificity.

Dr. Mason will examine methods such as BOLD, TOLD, DCE MRI which have shown recent progress in the context of older quantitative oximetry studies based on 19F MR of perfluorocarbons, 1H of siloxanes, ESR and bioreductive nitroimidazole markers. Tumor oxygenation is related to vascular architecture and extent as well as metabolic activity.

Overview: fMRI falls under many different categories at ISMRM, and navigating how to pitch your work can be a tricky task. This session will include invited contributions from current (or past) AMPC members about the abstract workflows behind the scenes, specific to fMRI. Furthermore we aim to have a panel of experts to provide tips and tricks about fMRI-abstracts:

1. A good fMRI abstract from the author perspective (from award winners)
2. A good abstract from a reviewer perspective (from long term reviewers)
3. Abstracts from a AMPC perspective and what they do with it
4. Abstracts from the reader (conference attendee) perspective

Though there is an existing ‘how-to abstract’ session every year (about the technicalities of the submission process), we are adding a specific fMRI touch to it given the unique challenges that fMRI research faces.

Overview: Recent consensus efforts in the field of clinical in vivo magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) have provided a guidelines for best practices in data acquisition, processing and analysis. However, in the field of pre-clinical MRS, no consensus for best practices has been established, and methodological practices may differ greatly between sites. The goal of this virtual workshop is to bring the preclinical MRS research community together to discuss a starting point for developing and establishing guidelines for best practices in pre-clinical MRS. Our ultimate goal is to initiate a multi-site study to assess the variability of preclinical brain MRS measures using a ’standardised’ rodent brain MRS protocol. We will hear from individuals who have successfully carried out similar multi-site efforts in the field of pre-clincial MR imaging research.