Discover the benefits of having a common ontology for all patient images. This will broadly be divided into the following categories:
- Clinical care: While radiology images have the benefit of having common standards like Radlex, other patient images like photos, ophthalmology images, endoscopy images etc, do not have the benefit of any common standard or an ontology i.e. a common language which would enable indexing, archiving and retrieval of images in a standard manner. Lack of common ontology means that the images could be lost in a haystack (like bunch of Legos from different sources in a box) and might not be easily retrievable at the point of care by caregivers. This is a barrier for patient care as caregivers might not get a holistic view of the patient’s image data and hence might not be able to provide appropriate care affecting patient outcomes.
- Research: Standard ontologies enable multidisciplinary research such that patient images from different sources can be analyzed together. For example a photo of melanoma can be compared to the pathology slides for the same melanoma
- AI/ML: For AI and ML to reach its full potential in enhancing patient care the algorithms need clean and labelled data. Unless there is a common ontology it might be very challenging to provide an algorithm with clean training data which will obviously have a negative impact on the accuracy of such algorithms. For example – having a common ontology would enable radiomics and pathomics to work together for the same patient.
- HIMSS-SIIM collaboration to develop common ontology.
Objectives
- Describe some commonly available radiology ontologies
- Discuss the benefits of a common Ontology in clinical care
- Understand the benefits of standard ontology in research and AI/ML
Resources
Body Part Standardized Imaging Terminology (BPSITE)
Adoption of standard medical terminology for clinical systems is critical to improve interoperability, patient safety, and clinical outcomes and will allow medical practitioners to leverage the promises of precision medicine.
We want to hear from you! Take the Survey
CE Credit
SIIM has approved this activity for 1.0 hours of SIIM IIP Credits towards certification and re-certification by the American Board of Imaging Informatics (ABII).
To receive credit, registrants must view the entire webinar and then complete the post-webinar survey. Webinar credits will only be awarded one time per webinar view, regardless of if the learner watches the content live or on-demand.
Note: In order to receive credits for any events/learning you attend you must select your eligible credit types found in the CE & Certification section of your MySIIM Account profile.
To access the webinar, once you are registered navigate to My Learning in your My SIIM Account profile.
Not a member? Join SIIM Today and Save!
- FREE live & on-demand webinars
- Unlimited CE learning opportunities at no extra cost
- Discounted conferences and training
- Complimentary Journal of Imaging Informatics in Medicine
Matt Bishop, CIIP
Namita Sharma-Gandhi, MD, MScHI, FSAR
Webinar
Northwestern Medicine’s Transformed Approach to Managing Imaging Data for Research Purposes
This webinar will explore effective strategies for managing imaging research data, tackling interoperability challenges, ensuring data privacy, and implementing sustainable cost models. Learn from a real-world case study and discover best practices to support research and streamline workflows.
Webinar
Drivers Empowered: Updates on How Imaging Informaticists Will Get Where We Need To Be
Discover how the imaging informatics career matrix has evolved into a dynamic, web-based tool for interactive career planning. Join this webinar to explore community-built pathways, role-specific guidance, and how LLMs personalize insights to support professionals and organizations across the field.
Webinar
Applying Critical Security Controls to Make Security Manageable
Modern radiology faces growing cybersecurity threats, and safeguarding systems now requires strong foundations, smart planning, and proactive culture. In this webinar, you’ll learn key strategies for reducing risk—from effective incident response to navigating new challenges introduced by cloud and AI technologies. Join us to explore practical steps and the “four Ws” that can help strengthen security across your imaging environment.