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Sharing data: Imaging Data

Sharing data on COVID-19

Make your COVID-19 data accessible to the scientific community by releasing them in public databases along with respective metadata.

Metadata

Metadata are “data about data”, I.E. the information a dataset must be provided with in order to correctly interpret, manage and store it over time. Metadata generally includes information on the methodology used to collect the data, information on instrumental procedures, definitions of variables, units of measurement, indications on file formats, software used to collect and/or process the data and more. Metadata can be collected in simple text files and archived together with the dataset.

Researchers are strongly encouraged to use standard metadata, where they exist. It is strongly recommended to start defining and collecting metadata from the very beginning of the research project.

Metadata for clinical imaging data should be drawn according to the Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) requirements. DICOM is the de facto standard for storing and transmitting medical images, enabling the integration of medical imaging devices from multiple manufacturers.

The DICOM Standard is managed by the Medical Imaging & Technology Alliance a division of the National Electrical Manufacturers Association.

More information on standards and formats for metadata is collected in the FAIRsharing.org resource.

Controlled vocabularies/Ontologies

  • SNOMED Clinical Terms (SNOMED CT) is a systematically organized computer processable collection of medical terms providing codes, synonyms and definitions used in clinical documentation and reporting. SNOMED CT is considered to be the most comprehensive, multilingual clinical healthcare terminology in the world. SNOMED CT is maintained and distributed by SNOMED International, an international non-profit standards development organization, located in London, UK.

  • RadLex is a comprehensive set of radiology terms for use in radiology reporting, decision support, data mining, data registries, education and research. With more than 68,000 terms, RadLex satisfies the needs of software developers, system vendors and radiology users by adopting the best features of existing terminology systems while producing new terms to fill critical gaps. RadLex also provides a comprehensive and technology-friendly replacement for the ACR Index for Radiological Diagnoses. It unifies and supplements other lexicons and standards, such as SNOMED-CT and DICOM.

Repositories

Different repositories are available depending on the type of image data you generated.

To identify the most suitable resource for sharing your imaging data, we suggest using tools such as FAIRsharing, using the ‘imaging’ keyword or check the resources listed at the BioImage Archive.


Local Repositories

Some local repositories are available at department, university, institute level.

We suggest contacting your Data Stewardship or IT service for more information and support.

Suggest us a Local Repository by filling in this form. Increase your visibility, create synergies with other laboratories and let the impact of your research grow.