Research Interests
The research in my laboratory focused on three main areas: (1) advanced imaging applications to improve diagnostic accuracy in clinical imaging, (2) the scientific assessment of image quality, and (3) developing lower cost imaging for the developing world.
Projects in the area of advanced imaging applications have included applications of dual-energy and digital tomosynthesis for improving detection of cancer in chest and breast imaging. We were the leading laboratory in the world in the application of tomosynthesis to thoracic imaging applications, and were the first to demonstrate that tomosynthesis can triple the detection sensitivity of pulmonary nodules over conventional chest radiography. We had four NIH R01 grants funded to develop, optimize, and perform clinical studies of dual-energy and tomosynthesis imaging; commercial products in both these modalities are now available around the world as a result of our laboratory’s efforts.
My lab’s work in the science of image quality analysis has included substantial effort in the theory and experimental measurement of modulation transfer function, noise power spectrum, and detective quantum efficiency in undersampled digital systems. We received the Sylvia Sorkin Greenfield award in 1996 for the best publication of the year in the journal Medical Physics as a result of this work.
Other projects included the development of a new noise reduction technique called Correlated-Polarity Noise Reduction for improvement of image quality and reduction of dose in CT imaging, and the development of a lower-cost CT scanner for the developing world.