New center to develop AI-based imaging tools to improve diagnosis, care

Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology (MIR) at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis is establishing a new center dedicated to developing AI-based imaging tools to improve the diagnosis and precision treatment of cancers, cardiovascular disease, neurological diseases and numerous other conditions. The new Center for Computational and AI-enabled Imaging Sciences brings together collaborators from across WashU Medicine and others from WashU’s McKelvey School of Engineering.

AI already has shown promise for its ability to analyze vast collections of medical images to generate clinically relevant insights, identifying patterns and anomalies that physicians might otherwise not detect on their own.

“Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology has long been a national leader in developing innovative imaging technologies, from the invention of positron emission tomography to today’s AI applications in diagnostics and image analysis, and this new center represents an ambitious expansion of our capability,” said Pamela K. Woodard, MD, the Elizabeth E. Mallinckrodt Professor and head of MIR at WashU Medicine. “Integrating AI into imaging will enhance how we diagnose disease, predict its progression and tailor treatments to the unique needs of each patient.”

The new center will help advance AI-driven imaging technologies, such as two recently developed at WashU Medicine — in collaboration with MIR — that are being commercialized. One tool can analyze mammograms to predict an individual patient’s risk of breast cancer over the next five years. Another rapidly maps the brain to help neurosurgeons plan delicate surgeries and avoid sensitive areas that control speech, movement and cognitive function. The center will be a hub for expertise in image analysis that uses sophisticated computing tools to find patterns in datasets of millions of medical images and de-identified patient records, providing insight on both the progression and the potential treatment of disease. The center will also support training on these tools for clinicians and researchers.

The new center will join a growing WashU ecosystem of collaborative AI initiatives that are helping to shape the future of medicine. These include the Center for Health AI (CHAI), which was established as part of the joint agreement to build deeper collaboration between BJC Health System and WashU Medicine and is focused on making health care more personalized and effective for patients and more efficient for providers; and the AI for Health Institute at WashU McKelvey Engineering, which is working on other AI-powered medical innovations.

The Center for Computational and AI-enabled Imaging Sciences will primarily focus on developing AI-based medical imaging applications that integrate information from different imaging types — ranging from digital microscope images of cells to MRI scans to X-rays — to identify clinically informative connections between them. This may include identifying previously unknown early indicators of disease onset that could allow for more effective clinical interventions.

The center will bring together AI imaging experts and researchers from across the Medical Campus, including Siteman Cancer Center, based at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and WashU Medicine, and from the school’s Departments of Medicine, of Neurology, of Psychiatry and of Radiation Oncology.

A clear image of the future of medicine

The new center will house information from the imaging databases of all the participating departments, collectively representing a range of imaging modalities across many different types of disease. The AI-powered tools developed from those large datasets will enable increasingly precise diagnosis for individual patients, Woodard said.

AI algorithms applied to medical imaging have already been used to detect and classify new subtypes of some disorders in ways that can guide clinical treatment decisions. The breadth of information that will be available at the new center will accelerate this work in a broader range of conditions.

The new center will be led by Mark Anastasio, PhD, a leading expert in computational imaging science and AI for imaging applications. He joins WashU as the Mallinckrodt Endowed Professor of Imaging Sciences for MIR, where he will also be the Vice Chair for Imaging Sciences and AI Research. He will also be Professor of Electrical & Systems Engineering in McKelvey Engineering. Anastasio comes to WashU from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he has served as head of the Department of Bioengineering for the past six years.

“Institutions with leading academic medical centers that unite medical data, clinical expertise and advanced AI research will lead the next revolution in healthcare,” said Anastasio. “WashU is exactly such an institution and an ideal home for this center that will enable us to build a community to drive innovation that advances patient care in ways few other institutions can achieve.”

As part of that community building, Anastasio will join the leadership team of the Oncologic Imaging Program at Siteman Cancer Center. He will also be the associate Chief Research Information Officer for Biomedical Imaging at the Institute for Informatics, Data Science & Biostatistics (I2DB), where he will work with institute director Philip R.O. Payne, PhD, the Janet and Bernard Becker Professor of Medicine. Payne is also the chief health AI officer for CHAI and the Vice Chancellor for Biomedical Informatics and Data Science at WashU Medicine.

“AI-enabled imaging has the potential to be as transformative for medicine as earlier waves of innovation — from the adoption of electronic health records to the rise of precision medicine and the advent of real-world evidence generation,” said Payne. “That transformation is being realized here at WashU Medicine because of the dynamic and collaborative environment that exists at our institution, exemplified by leading-edge, transdisciplinary initiatives like this one.”

Aaron Bobick, PhD, dean of WashU McKelvey Engineering and the James M. McKelvey Professor, said dedicated centers such as this will be crucial to maximizing the medical and engineering expertise needed to build out the potential for AI in medical applications.

“Medical imaging offers some of the most exciting challenges in imaging science and artificial intelligence, both of which are core domains for McKelvey Engineering,” said Bobick. “I am certain that the innovations that this center will facilitate by combining the skills of WashU Engineering faculty with the broad range of medical expertise at WashU Medicine will lead to advances that both drive the science forward and benefit patients.”

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