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Research and Grants

Supporting SIIM's Mission through Education and Research — The mission of the Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine (SIIM) is to advance computer applications and information technology in medical imaging through education and research. Several society initiatives further that mission, including the TRIP(tm) Initiative, which aims to lead research to address the problem of information/image data overload; the annual R&D Symposium, which highlights promising research; and the SIIM Grant program, which supports original research in imaging informatics.

Make a Contribution to the SIIM Research Grants Program

Make a tax deductible contribution to the SIIM Research Grants Program.   Your contibution will support clinical research in the field of imaging informatics through research grants issued by SIIM.

TRIP(tm) Initiative

TRIP(tm) (Transforming the Radiological Interpretation Process) is an initiative of SIIM to spearhead research, education, and discovery of innovative solutions to the problem of information/image data overload. Rapid technological advances are creating burgeoning medical image data sets acquired by digital imaging devices, requiring the radiological community to shift its image interpretation and management processes. The SIIM TRIP(tm) Initiative fosters interdisciplinary research on technology as well as environmental and human factors to better manage and exploit the massive amount of information available. A conference along with several forums and white papers have been produced in support of the TRIP(tm) program.

TRIP(tm) focuses on three fundamental objectives:

1) Improving efficiency of interpretation of large data sets,
2) Improving the timeliness and effectiveness of communication, and
3) Decreasing medical errors.

The ultimate goal of the initiative is to improve the quality and safety of patient care.
In the fast-changing healthcare environment, vendors, researchers, and providers are working to establish relationships that share the risk of adopting new technological innovation, programs, services and processes designed to improve provider performance and patient care. SIIM institutional and corporate members are ideally situated to effectively confront these issues and be at the forefront in identifying solutions. TRIP(tm) Corporate Partnerships support activities such as the TRIP(tm) research conferences/workshops and quality research of young scholars through the SIIM informatics grant program, and bring the best of industry, government, and academia together to interact and share results with investigators at annual forums.

R&D Programs

Each year the SIIM Research and Development Committee presents the R&D Symposium as part of the SIIM Annual Meeting.  This special session features the progress and results of SIIM-supported research projects. SIIM Grantees have the opportunity to present their findings at the R&D Symposium, which has become a forum for promising research.

Grants

SIIM's grant program offers research grants, imaging informatics grants, product development grants, emeritus mentor grants, and microgrants in support of research in imaging informatics.

The grants are part of a continuing program that has already produced innovative research that promises benefits throughout the medical enterprise, including an open-source, Web-based application for radiology decision support; the use of mobile computing to improve the ordering and reporting of radiology examinations in the emergency department; a "dashboard" system to display real-time information about the status of interfaces between PACS and other medical systems; and using RIS and PACS to integrate "just-in-time" learning into routine daily practice.

The purpose of the grant program is to support original and practical research projects that have the potential to impact the practice of medicine and ultimately improve patient care. Any area of research involving medical imaging informatics is eligible for support, as well as development of new hardware, software, or processes to support medical practice, education, or research.

Practice Guidelines and Technical Standards Development

SIIM has collaborated with the ACR on the development of practice guidelines in the field of imaging informatics.

Online review for the 2009 revisions to the ACR/SIIM Collaborative Practice Guideline for Electronic Medical Privacy and Security is on the partnership page of the SIIM website.