Cleveland Clinic in partnership with the Arthritis Foundation will soon develop the largest repository in the country for osteoarthritis clinical trials, housed in a new Osteoarthritis Imaging Center, according to an Oct. 16 news release.
The OIC will centralize operations and become the single source for all future multicenter osteoarthritis clinical trials across the U.S.
"Gathering comprehensive imaging data is often resource limited. It is time-consuming and costly to obtain large numbers of patient images," Xiaojuan Li, PhD, a professor of biomedical engineering, and director of the Program of Advanced Musculoskeletal Imaging at Cleveland Clinic stated in the release. "By establishing a large, central hub, we can provide the support needed to collect the 'big data' in a standardized manner that researchers need to solve problems and develop new treatments."
Standardizing and centralizing the imaging will also allow research to make its way more seamlessly from peer-reviewed journals and clinical trials and into patient care.
"[I]t will be easier to translate some of the research findings into patient care," Carl Winalski, MD, radiologist and clinical director for the Program of Advanced Musculoskeletal Imaging stated. "Instead of weeding through hundreds of images to find a comparable case, the OIC will provide a searchable library and connect physicians to the information they need."