Quantitative Imaging in Medicine and Surgery: progress & perspective

Modern imaging techniques can be employed to collect both quantitative anatomic information and in vivo metabolic or functional information. Quantitative imaging methods that have been proven to correlate with clinical outcomes can play an important role in clinical decisions (1,2). Presently, a gap exists between the physics-based development of new techniques and the applications used in the study of disease. There is a need for targeted investigations that might establish the usefulness of more quantitative imaging measures for the assessment of disease state. In order to further advance and promote quantitative imaging and imaging biomarkers to be included in future radiologic practices, there is also a critical need to develop and validate algorithms that can process imaging data to provide clinical information for decision-making, and ideally automatically (3).