1. Steering Committee
William G. Bradley, Jr., MD, PhD
Chair, Department of Radiology
University of California San Diego
Chairman
Sholom Ackelsberg
General Manager
Academic Research Portfolio
GE Healthcare
Pat A. Basu, MD, MBA
Jim Beckett
Vice President, Clinical Research
Philips Healthcare
N. Reed Dunnick, MD
Chair, Department of Radiology
University of Michigan Medical Center
Steven Haberlein
Vice President
FUJIFILM Medical Systems USA, Inc.
James Jorkasky
Executive Director
National Alliance for
Eye and Vision Research
Q.Y. Ma, PhD
CEO
TIME MEDICAL Systems, Inc.
Richard Mather, PhD
Director, Clinical Programs
Toshiba Medical Research Institute
Oran Muduroglu
CEO
Medicalis Corporation
Martha Nolan, JD
Vice President, Public Policy
Society for Women's Health Research
Lenny Reznik
Director
Enterprise Imaging and Information
Agfa HealthCare Corporation
Sheila Ross
Special Counsel
Lung Cancer Alliance
Steven Seltzer, MD
Chair, Department of Radiology
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Paul Tuma
Vice President
Diagnostics Division
Nuance Healthcare
President
Renée L. Cruea, MPA
Executive Director
Academy of Radiology Research
1029 Vermont Avenue NW, Suite 505 • Washington, DC 20005
Phone: 202.347.5872 • Fax: 202.347.5876 • www.imagingcoalition.org
Imagingbillboard.org:
Linking Researchers and Patient Advocacy Groups in a
Partnership to Improve Care
Imaging is a unique area of medicine because it is used for so many
different types of diseases and conditions, including everything from
prenatal care to Alzheimer’s disease. Patients at every stage of life and
every stage of care use imaging, and almost everyone has had an imaging
test.
Despite this widespread use of imaging, many patients lack knowledge
about the field. One recent study found that 53% of patients failed to
identify radiologists as physicians. Even more importantly, patients are
unaware of imaging research and the role that it plays in improving their
care. As a result, researchers struggle to engage patients in their studies,
and the results of these studies often do not reach patients or their
primary care physicians.
The Coalition for Imaging and Bioengineering Research (CIBR) is a group of
patient advocacy organizations, radiology societies, academic radiology
departments, and industry representatives. CIBR brings these stakeholders
together to advocate on behalf of imaging research. In addition, the
coalition works to educate the public about imaging research’s impact on
patient care.
This focus on patient care sets CIBR apart from many other organizations.
More than 70 patient advocacy groups are part of the coalition, and they
represent patients with hundreds of diseases and conditions, all of whom
depend on imaging for diagnosis and treatment. This focus is reflected in
the organization’s motto, which reads “Enhancing Patient Care through
Advances in Biomedical Imaging.”
CIBR also strongly supports the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research
Institute (PCORI)’s mission of improving healthcare through the support of
patient-centered research. Because of imaging’s far-reaching impact on
medicine, CIBR is uniquely suited to help meet PCORI’s goals. PCORI’s
national priorities for research are all also important to imaging research.
For example, the assessment of prevention, diagnosis, and treatment
options is critical for knowing when patients should get an imaging test,
and if so, what kind. The improving healthcare systems priority is also
important to the imaging community as we strive to improve health
system-level uses of imaging technology and the coordination of care
between radiology and other fields of medicine. Communications and
dissemination research is also important as we work to ensure that

2. imaging results (and the latest imaging research) are communicated to patients and their
physicians. It is our hope that imaging research will help to address disparities in care for minority
populations and the disabled. Lastly, and most importantly, we hope to meet all of the above
priorities as we achieve the fifth goal of accelerating patient-centered outcomes research.
CIBR strongly believes that in order to meet these goals patient advocacy groups and researchers
need a “one-stop” website where they can partner with one another in support of research to
improve patient care. In order to make this effort as patient-centered as possible, the website will
give both patients and researchers the chance to search for one another based on mutual interests.
This will set imagingbillboard.org apart from other sites that mainly give researchers the chance to
search for patients, but don’t allow for a mutual collaboration.
The design and concept of this website will be based on the popular dating website, match.com.
CIBR believes that this format will be familiar to many patients and this will make it easier for them
to use. Each patient advocacy group will be encouraged to post a profile that gives information on
the group. They will also be able to search for researchers who have similar interests. For example,
the Colon Cancer Alliance might use the site to connect with researchers who are comparing virtual
colonoscopy to traditional colonoscopy.
Here is a screenshot of a sample profile for the Colon Cancer Alliance:

3. Researchers will also have profiles on the website. These profiles will outline their research activities
and interests. Researchers who are hoping to get patient input on a study, or who want to use
patient advocacy groups to get word out about their research results, will use this website to search
for relevant groups. For example, Dr. Ruth Carlos from the University of Michigan’s Radiology
Department might use the site to search for patient advocacy groups that work on cervical cancer.
Here is a screenshot of a sample profile for Dr. Carlos:
The site will have a secure internal email system that patient advocacy groups and researchers can
use to contact one another regarding imaging research studies. In addition, there will be a
discussion forum where advocates and researchers can have more informal discussions regarding
topics of interest to both communities.

4. In addition to the profiles, the website will be a hub for imaging news and updates. For example, we
will move CIBR’s popular patient advocacy newsletter to this portal. This weekly newsletter presents
the latest imaging news and highlights in a comprehensive, yet easy-to-understand format.
This is a screenshot of a recent edition of the newsletter:
Through its publication on imagingbillboard.org, this newsletter will reach a wider audience. Patient
advocacy groups will be urged to forward the newsletter to their members, and academic radiology
departments will be asked to leave copies of the newsletter in their waiting rooms. We will also
encourage imaging researchers and patient advocacy groups to link to the newsletter stories from
their profiles. So in the above example, a cancer researcher who is involved in the second study will
post a link to that story on his profile. That way a patient advocate who is searching for information
on that topic will find the researcher’s profile and learn about new and exciting research
opportunities.
Imagingbillboard.org will also include information about the latest imaging research funding
opportunities. This will enable imaging researchers and patient advocacy groups to learn about
additional sources of funding and possible research opportunities.

5. For example, here is a screenshot of a page from the CIBR website where we list many of these
opportunities:
The above page is currently focused mainly on the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Imagingbillboard.org will include information about grant opportunities from other sources,
including the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and of course, PCORI. Because
imaging is involved in so many different parts of science and medicine, the above agencies all fund
imaging research. However, there is currently no centralized place for this information, and
imagingbillboard.org hopes to fill that role.
CIBR will use its extensive network of patient advocacy groups to educate and inform the public
about the website. Our patient advocacy groups will be encouraged to link to imagingbillboard.org
through their websites. In addition, we will use social media to inform patients about the
opportunity. In our conversations with patient advocacy groups, we have found that increasingly
these groups are active on social media and are building their membership through these means.
Sick patients may not be able to attend face-to-face support group meetings, but they use Twitter,
Facebook, and other forms of social media to discuss their concerns regarding imaging. By linking
imagingbillboard.org to social media, we will encourage patients to get involved in the site and in
imaging research studies.
In addition, our academic radiology departments will ask imaging researchers to post profiles on the
site. These departments and societies will also link to imagingbillboard.org from their websites, and
will share information about the website at their annual meetings and workshops.