ACR Launches U.S. Clinical Imaging Research Registry

The American College of Radiology (ACR; Reston, VA, USA) has announced the formation of the ACR National Clinical Imaging Research Registry (ANCIRR). The registry, which has gone live, will collect case images and anonymized patient health information from multiple sources in order to fuel more robust and impactful research than image collection alone, since observational studies derived from registries are becoming an increasingly vital part of research, along with randomized controlled trials and retrospective studies.

The ANCIRR includes six current and eight planned registries that can collect and curate images and clinical data from multiple practice settings in order to produce the large data sets needed to address complex scientific issues and produce results that are applicable across various care settings, geographic locations, and multiple populations. For example, the ANCIRR can democratize healthcare research by enabling practicing radiologists who have rarely, or never, taken part in research studies to make vital contributions to patient care advancement.


“The ACR has a unique ability to create curated, integrated diagnostic datasets of multi-institutional data,” said Pamela K. Woodard, MD, FACR, ACR Research Commission Chair. “This ability to leverage electronic health records can fulfill the promise of digital data, aid health equity efforts and lead to more targeted patient care.”

“The ANCIRR provides seamless data and image collection through the ACR TRIAD and ACR Connect suite of tools to support clinical research, quality improvement initiatives, artificial intelligence (AI) development and evaluation, regulatory submissions, and other new technologies,” said ACR Informatics Commission Chair Christoph Wald, MD, PhD, MBA, FACR.

The newest of the six current ANCIRR registries, the COVID-19 Imaging Research Registry (CIRR), is a primary data collection pathway for the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB)-funded Medical Imaging and Data Resource Center (MIDRC), which may become the largest COVID-19 medical imaging archive in the world. The CIRR also provides COVID-19 images to the Society of Critical Care Medicine VIRUS COVID-19 Registry and the U.S. National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI; Bethesda, MD, USA) clinical trials network.

Related Links:
American College of Radiology
U.S. National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute