The National Lung Screening Trial is evaluating the effectiveness of low-dose spiral CT and conventional chest X-ray as screening tests for persons who are at high risk for developing lung cancer. This multicenter trial requires quality assurance (QA) for the image quality and technical parameters of the scans. The electronic system described here helps manage the QA process. The system includes a workstation at each screening center that de-identifies the data, a DICOM storage service at the QA Coordinating Center, and Web-based systems for presenting images and QA evaluation forms to the QA radiologists. Quality assurance data are collated and analyzed by an independent statistical organization. We describe the design and implementation of this electronic QA system, emphasizing issues relating to data security and privacy, the various obstacles encountered in the installation of a common system at different participating screening centers, and the functional success of the system deployed.
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ML Ingeholm BA Levine SA Fatemi HW Moser (2002) ArticleTitleA pragmatic discussion on establishing a multicenter digital imaging network J Digit Imaging 15 IssueIDSuppl 1 180–183 Occurrence Handle10.1007/s10278-002-5058-1 Occurrence Handle12105723
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This work was performed under the NIH/NCI project National Lung Screening Trial, contract number N01-CN-25516. We are grateful to the following individuals for their help during this project: John Gohagen, former PLCO and NLST Project Officer, for his leadership and direction during the design and implementation of the image QA process; the QA radiologists for feedback in helping to guide the GUI design; the network administrators at the screening centers for their persistence in establishing the necessary network connections; the screening center coordinators in keeping up with the requirements for data submission; our system manager, Paul Koppel, and network administrator, Stan Phillips; and Kirk Smith at the QACC for help during initial database design and image management.
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*Quality Assurance Working Group: Timothy Church, Ph.D., Jill Cordes, R.N., Richard Fagerstrom, Ph.D., Glenn Fletcher, Ph.D., Mike Flynn, Ph.D., Melissa Ford, Ph.D., Melissa Fritz, M.P.H., Kavita Garg, M.D., David Gierada, M.D., Fred Larke, M.S., Guillermo Marquez, Ph.D., Alisha Moore, M.S.N., C.R.N.P., Hrudaya Nath, M.D., Pete Ohan, B.S., Tom Payne, Ph.D., and Xizeng Wu, Ph.D.
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Moore, S.M., Gierada, D.S., Clark, K.W. et al. Image Quality Assurance in the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial Network of the National Lung Screening Trial. J Digit Imaging 18, 242–250 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10278-005-5153-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10278-005-5153-1