What do biomarkers add: Mapping quantitative imaging biomarkers research

Abstract

[EN] Purpose: To understand the contribution of the concept of "biomarker" to quantitative imaging research. Method: The study consists of a bibliometric and a network analysis of quantitative imaging biomarkers research based on publication data retrieved from the Web of Science (WoS) for the period 1976-2017. Co-authorship is used as a proxy for scientific collaboration among research groups. Research groups are disambiguated and assigned to an institutional sector and to a medical specialty or academic discipline. Co-occurrence maps of specialties are built to delineate the collaborative network structure of this emerging field. Results: Two very distinct growth patterns emerged from the 5432 publications retrieved from WoS. Scientific production on 'quantitative imaging biomarkers >> (QIB) began 20 years after the first publications on 'quantitative imaging >> (QI). The field of QIB has exhibited rapid growth becoming the most used term since 2011. Among the 12,882 institutions identified, 56% include the term QIB and 44% include the term QI; among the 14,734 different research groups identified, 60% include the term QIB and 40% the term QI. QIB is characterized by a well-established community of researchers whose largest contributors are in medical specialties (radiology 17%, neurology 16%, mental 10%, oncology 10%), while QI shows a more fragmented and diverse community (radiology 13%, engineering 13%, physics 10%, oncology 9%, neurology 6%, biology 4%, nuclear 3%, computing 3%). This suggests a qualitative difference between QIB and QI networks. Conclusions: Adding biomarkers to quantitative imaging suggests that medical imaging is rapidly evolving, driven by the efforts to translate quantitative imaging research into clinical practice.