Trends in Radiation Medical Sciences: Instrumentation and Imaging Algorithms

With the recent introduction of Transactions in Radiation and Plasma Medical Sciences (TRPMS), it is timely to consider the recent trends and advancements in the field of radiation medical sciences. This editorial follows the theme of the scientific summary sessions introduced for the first time at the IEEE Medical Imaging Conference (MIC) in Strasbourg in November 2016. The objective of the editorial is not to highlight specific papers as was the case during the oral summaries; instead we highlight the major themes, which illustrate the most important research in the field and the direction it is moving to advance the state-of-the-art in imaging systems, image reconstruction, and data analysis. The research presented at the MIC is often an early indication of the technological innovations that soon after appear in commercial systems and impact both preclinical research and clinical practice. We broadly divided the sessions into “Instrumentation and Imaging Systems” and “Algorithms and Analysis”; the former includes topics of radiation detectors, new scanner configurations, and system performance, while the latter includes topics of data processing, image generation, and quantitative methods. We also comment briefly on directions we believe our field should address in the future.