Towards a standard for PET raw data

As the capabilities of computer hardware and software progresses, the importance of standardized data is becoming more relevant. While DICOM is widely used as a standard for PET images, no agreed format exists for PET raw data. In addition, all current vendor formats differ, to accommodate different architectures and processing strategies.An international working group comprised of PET imaging experts from academia and industry was formed in 2022 to propose a new standard format. Efforts include establishing the key informational elements to include in the standard, data container formats, and integration initiatives. An important feature of the proposal is the use of a meta-language (called Yardl) for defining data structure and protocols for accessing, transferring, and storing data, allowing logical separation of data elements and container formats. All portions of the format, tools for accessing the data in the standardized format, and example data will be made open source and publicly available.In this work, we will provide a status report of the progress of the working group. The effort is ongoing, and we welcome interest, feedback, and support from the greater community. We hope that this standard will facilitate a new paradigm for PET innovation, including new opportunities for inter-scanner and inter-vendor harmonization and AI applications, and aide in the advancement of novel PET applications and analysis tools.