ISMRM25 - MRI Data Multi-Site Harmonization

ISMRM & ISMRT Annual Meeting & Exhibition • 10-15 May 2025 • Honolulu, Hawai'i

MRI Data Multi-Site Harmonization

Weekday Course

ORGANIZERS: Berkin Bilgic, Yogesh Rathi, Gary Zhang

Wednesday, 14 May 2025

313A

08:15 - 10:15

Moderators: Eleftherios Garyfallidis & Lipeng Ning

Skill Level: Basic to Advanced

Session Number: W-01

CME and CE Credit

Session Number: W-01

Overview
This tutorial will start with covering the overall problem of reproducibility and how it impacts reserach studies, with specific emphasis on inter-scanner and inter-site variability. Three different ways in which the field has addressed the inter-scanner variability will be covered, beginning with the use of statistical methods on post-processed data and the use of AI algorithms to remove variability from the data itself. Finally, the emerging field of vendor neutral pulse sequence programming to acquire data consistenly across scanners will be covered.

Target Audience
Clinicians who want to learn about inter-scanner variability. Students, research fellows and investigators who want to know about different ways to address the problem of inter-scanner variability and how harmonization techniques help reduce bias and scanner-specific effects in your data.

Educational Objectives
As a result of attending this course, participants should be able to:
• Describe the challenges to reproducibility due to inter-scanner effects;
• Describe harmonization techniques for data already acquired; and
• Summarize harmonization methods for prospective MRI studies.

08:15		Challenges to Reproducibility in Multi-Site MRI Patricia Grant
08:40		Retrospective Harmonization: Statistical Methods Chantal Tax
09:05		Retrospective Harmonization: AI Methods Daniel Moyer
09:30		Prospective Harmonized Acquisition & Reconstruction View Presentation Video Shohei Fujita Impact: Vendor-harmonized MRI acquisition using Pulseq significantly reduces cross-vendor variability compared to vendor-specific sequences without harmonization, yielding more consistent multi-site imaging results.
09:55		Panel Discussion