Released today in the Open-Access, Open-Data journal GigaScience is the National COVID-19 Chest Imaging Database (NCCID), a centralized database including chest X-rays, Computed Tomography (CT) and MRI scans from patients across the UK. Utilizing the special position as the worlds single biggest incorporated health care system, the benefits of collecting chest imaging data this large are comprehensive and already being used by doctors and the research study community.
Agent de-identified lung image from National COVID-19 Chest Imaging Database (NCCID). Credit: NCCID Collaborative
With the GigaScience paper describing how to access this Open Data resource, the NCCID training information is readily available to users anywhere in the world, consisting of software application designers, clinicians, and academics, via a strenuous Data Access Request process. The National Covid Chest Imaging Database (NCCID) is one of the largest datasets of its kind and it is constantly growing, with 25 NHS trusts and over 25 NHS trusts and 27 hospitals contributing. Gathering imaging data from over 10,000 clients in the NCCID training set to offer 34,559 image studies and 1,663 GB of information.
Released today in the Open-Access, Open-Data journal GigaScience is the National COVID-19 Chest Imaging Database (NCCID), a central database containing chest X-rays, Computed Tomography (CT) and MRI scans from patients throughout the UK. Collecting imaging data from over 10,000 clients in the NCCID training set to make available 34,559 image research studies and 1,663 GB of information.
It is an initiative established by NHSX, the new UK Government system with obligation for setting national policy and developing best practice for the National Health Service (NHS) innovation, digital and information, including data sharing and transparency.
Gathered with the goal of supporting a much better understanding of the COVID-19 virus and develop innovation which will enable the best look after patients hospitalised with a serious infection. It is an initiative developed by NHSX, the new UK Government system with responsibility for setting national policy and establishing best practice for the National Health Service (NHS) innovation, digital and information, including data sharing and openness. This represents a country-wide effort from radiologists and IT teams in NHS sites, the British Society of Thoracic Imaging (BSTI), Royal Surrey County Hospital (RSCH) and the NHS AI Lab have teamed up at a time where all groups have had little capacity for long-lasting jobs.
Asked on the energy of this work, very first author Dominic Cushnan says: “The NCCID database facilitates the development of AI-enabled diagnostic tools which can enhance and speed up the clinical medical diagnosis of diseases (such as COVID) and also support longitudinal research studies on the effect of illness on patients and population management”
This information has currently been utilized by a variety of tasks and studies, such as the LUCAS tool developed to forecast Covid patient death risk from patient variables (see the preprint https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.04.27.21256196). As a number of artificial intelligence powered algorithms and models to support physicians to decide what action to take on the front-line, such as giving oxygen and medications, before patients reach a vital phase. The Cambridge University NHS AIX-COVNET partnership is one of the very first projects to use this data to develop an open-source AI tool to support the rapid diagnosing and triaging of patients with COVID-19.
Pseudonymized information is offered by means of the NHSE AWS cloud facilities after completing an information access demand. See the site for more: https://nhsx.github.io/covid-chest-imaging-database
Reference: “A summary of the National COVID-19 Chest Imaging Database: data quality and cohort analysis” 29 November 2021, GigaScience.DOI: 10.1093/ gigascience/giab076.