QIBA – EARL Collaboration
In August 2020, QIBA – the Quantitative Imaging Biomarker Alliance of the Radiological Society of North America and EARL – an initiative of the European Association of Nuclear Medicine, signed a Memorandum of Understanding to collaborate on PET/CT scanner harmonisation and the wider application of PET/CT quantification in nuclear medicine imaging in clinical trials and clinical practice.
A year later, nine clinical sites across Europe and Japan – all EARL-accredited for FDG-PET/CT imaging – successfully passed the conformance test for the QIBA FDG-PET/CT Profile. This means such centres are not only conducting best-practice FDG-PET/CT imaging, but also providing high-quality quantitative imaging to their patients. The uptake of the radiopharmaceutical can be measured reliably and reproducibly at these Centres of Excellence. This could help many cancer patients and those with COVID-19 or long COVID.
The QIBA and EARL collaboration continues to advance quantitative imaging harmonisation applied internationally.
Soon more EARL-accredited sites will be achieving the level of imaging excellence. This collaboration will expand to additional radiopharmaceuticals beyond [18F]F-FDG.
An official press release by QIBA can be found here.