i-Violin project launched on 1 September 2022

Several ongoing projects and recent surveys have demonstrated disparities in oncological imaging procedures across Europe. The two-year i-Violin project under the EU4Health program aims to address these and improve optimisation and harmonisation of oncological imaging procedures in Europe and to ensure their broad adoption to improve the quality and safety of cancer care for Europe’s patients.

In recent years, several EU-funded projects have advanced the understanding of imaging and their effects, on which i-Violin will build upon; mainly the Horizon 2020 MEDIRAD project (no. 755523, www.medirad-project.eu) completed in February 2022 and the ongoing SINFONIA project (no. 945196, www.sinfonia-appraisal.eu), both related to dose determination in three-dimensional imaging as well as image quality assessment.

i-Violin aims to disseminate the image quality assessment tool developed in MEDIRAD for chest CT in hospitals throughout Europe and adjust it for imaging procedures in the abdominal and pelvic regions, for which no satisfactory tool exists. The outcome of available commercial software for evaluating patient-specific dose indicators will be cross-validated against more sophisticated dose-evaluation tools for determining organ doses dependent on patient parameters and image settings as developed for chest CT. Furthermore, only a combination of image-quality assessment and dose evaluation on the same patient images can allow patient- and indication-specific optimisation with respect to patient radiation protection. A European database will be established for CT images resulting from different imaging parameters, corresponding patient dose indicators and image quality indicators, and recommendations will be given for these approaches.

European adoption of optimisation measures for image quality assessment and dose evaluation in member states must be fostered through dissemination of i-Violin’s deliverables among hospitals, policy makers, societies and other stakeholders and implementation of education and training activities. i-Violin will contribute to establishing a harmonised and standardised oncological imaging approach, and a targeted education and training programme for radiologists, radiographers and medical physicists will accompany dissemination and foster uptake. Education and training programmes and the standardisation efforts of the EC tender project EUCLID, the EUTEMPE-RX project and the Horizon 2020 EURAMED rocc-n-roll project (no. 899995) (https://roccnroll.euramed.eu/) will be taken into account.

Prof. Christoph Hoeschen, i-Violin’s Scientific Coordinator from Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Germany, declared: “i-Violin is an opportunity to implement in clinical practice standardised approaches in oncological imaging which include tools for quantifiable image quality assessment and software solutions for patient dose determination. We will take advantage of the latest scientific developments produced within relevant EC-funded projects to the benefit of Europe’s cancer patients”.

The project started on 1st of September 2022 and consists of the following partners:

  1. European Institute for Biomedical Imaging Research (Project Coordinator), Austria
  2. Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg (Scientific Coordinator), Germany
  3. University Medicine Mainz (of the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz), Germany
  4. Polytechnic Institute of Coimbra, Portugal
  5. University of Crete, Greece
  6. Clinical Hospital Dubrava (KB Dubrava), Croatia
  7. University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Slovenia
  8. KU Leuven, Belgium
  9. University College Dublin, National University of Ireland, Dublin, Ireland
  10. Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority, Finland

The project is co-funded under the EU4Health Health Programme 2021-2027 (grant agreement no. 101056832). It fully supports the Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan objective to ensure high standards in cancer care, the SAMIRA action plan and the EU4Health Programme’s general objective of improving and fostering health in the European Union. The project is also in line with the ESR EuroSafe Imaging and the EURAMED strategic research agendas.

Visit www.eibir.org/projects/i-violin/  for regular project updates.

For any enquiries contact the EIBIR office at office@eibir.org or abucur@eibir.org.

         The i-Violin project is co-funded under the EU4Health Health Programme 2021-2027 under grant agreement no. 101056832.

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or HaDEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.