I know of and have used several quantitative analysis tools like those Cortechs Labs and Icometrix offer. I am curious as to why we do not see the same tools used for spinal analysis? Little market demand? perhaps the analysis is unnecessary when compared to developing brain analyzing tech?
I have spoken with several neuros regarding this, however I am more interested in the opinions of folks using SCT and helping develop it.
Any feedback is greatly appreciated.
Thank you!
Hi @AmITrippen,
Thank you for your question. SCT is a standalone, fully transparent (open source), free, and self-sufficient analysis platform for quantitative MRI of the spinal cord. It uses state-of-the-art analysis methods (see list of references) and it is an actively-maintained project. With these arguments, there is little need to have another similar software package that is paid and closed source (hence not possible for researchers/clinicians to know exactly how data were analyzed). The field of neuroimaging is at a turning point, where reproducibility and transparency are being increasingly scrutinized.
Multiple researchers and clinicians are already using SCT (see list of publications where SCT was used). There is, however a need for very advanced expertise for using SCT at its full capabilities. This is why SCT team offers private consultation service (requests sent to jcohen@polymtl.ca), and is working closely with companies like Imeka, NeuroRX and Biospective, to wrap SCT with their proprietary software and analysis workflow.
Cheers,
Julien