Multi-modality medical image simulation of biological models with the Virtual Imaging Platform (VIP)

This paper describes a framework for the integration of medical image simulators in the Virtual Imaging Platform (VIP). Simulation is widely involved in medical imaging but its availability is hampered by the heterogeneity of software interfaces and the required amount of computing power. To address this, VIP defines a simulation workflow template which transforms object models from the IntermediAte Model Format (IAMF) into native simulator formats and parallelizes the simulation computation. Format conversions, geometrical scene definition and physical parameter generation are covered. The core simulator executables are directly embedded in the simulation workflow, enabling data parallelism exploitation without modifying the simulator. The template is instantiated on simulators of the four main medical imaging modalities, namely Positron Emission Tomography, Ultrasound imaging, Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Computed Tomography. Simulation examples and performance results on the European Grid Infrastructure are shown.