The DCBIA is redefining Image Analysis research in Dentistry through Data Science open systems and sharing.

The Dental and Craniofacial Bionetwork for Image Analysis, DCBIA, brings together clinical researchers, computer scientists and engineers to address the following gaps between clinical choices and effective treatments: (a) a lack of quantitative imaging biomarkers of bone structure; (b) limitations in techniques to assess treatment effects and quantify degradation or repair of bone; (c) a lack of software and training for the use in dental clinical practice management.

With the rapid advancement of Data Science, our Data Management infrastructure maintains web based platforms and databases for data warehousing, cleansing, extraction and annotation, staging, processing, and tasks management. Robust Data Management in our Data Storage for Computation and Integration web portal ensures the data quality, integrity, and governance including security, confidentiality and privacy aspects of the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) policy for Data Safety and Monitoring.

We work to integrate and share imaging quantitative methodology in Dentistry, supporting patient-specific decision making and assessment of the disease progression via Data processing, Data descriptive and predictive modeling, using machine learning approaches. We are currently developing computational algorithms that extend the capabilities of the 3DSlicer open-source technologies. We create open-source technologies that facilitate collaboration on data, enable sharing and reuse, and perform our own cutting-edge Data Science of dental and craniofacial data sets.

Our long-term goals are to aid the decision process of treatment procedures towards personalized craniofacial care, allow translation of basic science developments into the clinical field with efficient engineering solutions, and train both young clinical image specialists and experienced clinical researchers on the new tools and techniques.

This work was supported by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research and the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering under R01DE024450. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health