Overview of Services

The Radiology Imaging Core Lab at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center serves as the interface between investigators and the Department of Radiology and its vast access to medical imaging and interpretative expertise. It creates a well-defined point of contact for all potential, new and ongoing image-related research projects. The Lab supports and further advances both clinical and translational research programs.

Services:

Consultation Services:

Not sure of what exactly to ask for? Not sure how imaging may play a role in your project? Contact the Lab and we will take time to understand your project and idea and explore options for how imaging can be part of your project.

Feasibility Assessment for Cancer Clinical Trials:

All feasibility questions regarding the use of medical imaging services can be addressed to the Imaging Core Lab. Staff in the Lab will review the project protocol, perform feasibility assessments on both technical and professional services required to support the project, and generate appropriate proposals and fee schedule for the investigator to review.

With clinical trials relying on image data for the determination of patient outcomes, particularly in oncology trials, the Imaging Core Lab performs quantitative and semi-quantitative analyses of image data required by clinical trials. The Lab will also ensure the necessary, valid, and reproducible tumor and image assessments are complete.

Time Response Assessments:

The Imaging Core Lab has dedicated infrastructure to support Tumor Response Assessments (RECIST, iRECIST, RANO, etc), coordinates research activities with individual study coordinators, and is committed to timely tumor assessments for trials.

Feasibility Assessment for Non-Cancer Clinical Trials:

The fundamental basis for the Radiology Imaging Core Lab at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center is to provide robust imaging support and dedicated infrastructure to support clinical trials and research projects.

Image Anonymization and Transfer:

Research involving the use of medical imaging resides at the interface of clinical and research aspects of practice. The Imaging Core Lab has the tools necessary to ensure compliance with anonymization of imaging studies (i.e., removing confidential HIPAA information) as well as ensuring safe transfer of imaging sets outside the institution if called for by the protocol.

Body Fat/Sarcopenia Analysis:

The Imaging Core Lab has dedicated software able to perform body fat/sarcopenia analysis. The assessment of sarcopenia is currently an area being heavily investigated and how it relates to patient outcomes in different clinical scenarios. The Lab can perform such analysis for researchers.