Neuroimaging Platform

Platform Committee: Manuel Desco (coordinator), Joost Janssen, N. Bargalló, Josep Maria Haro, Raymond Salvador, Julio Sanjuan and Benedicto Crespo-Facorro.

The Neuroimaging Platform is a technical group forming part of the CIBERSAM whose purpose is to act as a collection or database of neuroimages, connected with research projects carried out by the CIBER in the Mental Health area.

The Neuroimaging Platform can thus be seen as a space for hosting neuroimages. The aim is to further the use of neuroimaging techniques, and become a vehicle for contact between groups specialising in processing and analysis in the Mental Health CIBER. It also carries out a connection role exclusively between groups with a technical profile but with proven experience in image processing.

The images provided by the research groups connected with CIBERSAM are stored under dissociated coding, with the personal data of the subjects involved under the responsibility of the groups who provide the information.

The fixed resources are located at the Medical Imaging Laboratory, Medicine and Experimental Surgery Unit of the Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón de Madrid.  Dr Manuel Desco (G07) coordinates the work required for maintaining the Neuroimaging Platform, as well as for ensuring the security, confidentiality, entirety and availability of the information stored in it, with the infrastructure and protocols required for accomplishing both purposes. It similarly has the scientific-technological infrastructure required to provide the CIBER’s scientific community with the collection of images contained in the Neuroimaging Platform.

Criteria for using the platform

1. Application for authorisation for use of the platform.
1. In all cases the compulsory fields of GRIDSAM for the subjects whose images are required to be sent must be filled in.
2. Uploading images to the server of CIBERSAM’s Neuroimaging Platform must previously be authorised by the coordinator of this platform. To get this authorisation one has to send in (before uploading images) a standard document which will be provided to the principal investigator of the group wishing to provide images to the platform. After being properly filled in this document must be sent to neuro@hggm.es.
2. Uploading Images to the platform. After authorisation has been given for uploading images to the platform, the Principal Investigator (IP) of the group wishing to provide data will be given detailed action protocols for uploading data from their centre, as well as an access code and ID specifically for the IP as person responsible for this data.
3. Downloading data from the platform. The coordination of the Neuroimaging platform will manage applications for access to the images which are received, Any IP or group wishing to access a collection of images hosted in the Neuroimaging platform which has the approval of the relevant Ethics Committee with regard to the use they intend to make of the images will have to send in an application for access to the collection of images in question, filling in a protocol of access to images which will be supplied to the applicants. The decision on whether or not to grant access to the image collection will in any event be made by the Director of the CIBERSAM, who will be informed of the resolution taken by the Platform Commission.

The Neuroimaging Platform may be used by any researcher from the Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental by getting in touch with the platform, which will inform them of the protocols to be applied.

If you have any doubts please contact neuro@hggm.es

Coordinator of the Neuroimaging Platform Commission: Manuel Desco (desco@hggm.es)