Development and verification of medical image analysis tools within the 3D slicer environment

Rapid development of domain specialized medical imaging tools is essential for deploying medical imaging technologies to advance clinical research and clinical practice. This work describes the development process, deployment method, and evaluation of modules constructed within the 3D Slicer environment. These tools address critical problems encountered in four different clinical domains: quality control review of large repositories of medical images, rule-based automated label map cleaning, quantification of calcification in the heart using low-dose radiation scanning, and waist circumference measurement from abdominal scans. Each of these modules enables and accelerates clinical research by incorporating medical imaging technologies that minimize manual human effort. They are distributed within the multi-platform 3D Slicer Extension Manager environment for use in the computational environment most convenient to the clinician scientist.