On Aug. 5, 2020, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced it had launched the Medical Imaging and Data Resource Center (MIDRC), an ambitious effort that will harness the power of artificial intelligence and medical imaging to fight COVID-19. The multi-institutional collaboration, led by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering will create new tools that physicians can use for early detection and personalized therapies for COVID-19 patients.

The features of infected lungs and hearts seen on medical images can help assess disease severity, predict response to treatment, and improve patient outcomes. However, a major challenge is to rapidly and accurately identify these signatures and evaluate this information in combination with many other clinical symptoms and tests. The MIDRC goals are to lead the development and implementation of new diagnostics, including machine learning algorithms, that will allow rapid and accurate assessment of disease status and help physicians optimize patient treatment.

The MIDRC will facilitate rapid and flexible collection, analysis, and dissemination of imaging and associated clinical data. Collaboration among the ACR, RSNA, and AAPM is based on each organization’s unique and complementary expertise within the medical imaging community, and each organization’s dedication to imaging data quality, security, access, and sustainability.