Policies and Procedures

Before you can schedule your first scan, please complete the following:

• Complete the study initiation form and send it to [email protected]
• Get Level II Safety training for at least one lab member
• Make sure lab members have UNI, CU ID, and building access (details available here)
• Register the PI and lab members in iLab
• Get IRB/IACUC approval, send data sheet to [email protected]
• Discuss your pulse sequences with Amaresh Konar
• Contact the NI Senior Systems Administrator Zhi Qiang (Michael) Zhang ([email protected]) and ask him to create a new REDCap account for the staff member who will manage the incidental findings reads (details available here)

See the Safety Manual for our full safety policy. 

Two users who have received Level II training in MR safety and ZI safety policies must be present at every scan. For assisted scans, this can include the MR technologist. To schedule Level II safety training, please use our Reservation Request Form. 

When recruiting participants, have them fill out a safety screening form as soon as possible. If there are any contraindications, submit this information to [email protected] at least 7 days prior to the scan

• For any implants or medical devices, please provide as much information as possible: make, model, materials, dimensions, position
• If an implant contains metal or electronic components, provide an FDA Label 
• Let us know as soon as possible if no label is available after contacting the manufacturer

A note on tattoos (see Safety Manual for details): 

• Provide a full description of all tattoos including size, shape, color, location, and age
• All tattoos must be visually inspected by photograph or in person before a participant can be cleared to scan

All participants must fill out the screening form again on the day of the scan.

MRI scheduling is done through iLab. If you are new to iLab, please contact [email protected] about setting up your account.

Assisted scans require the presence of an MR Technologist. They can be scheduled 9-5 Monday-Friday when a Technologist is available. Please make sure to check the MR Technologist calendar on iLab before scheduling an assisted scan.

Unassisted scans require Level III safety training, which allows users to access the control rooms and run scans without a Technologist present. Unassisted scans can be scheduled 24/7 on any date. Contact Jonathan Cardona for Level III training to become an independent user.

In addition to scan time, make sure to reserve any other spaces you will need as part of your study. Testing rooms, the mock scanner, and workspaces on the 3rd floor are all available on iLab. Please book the testing rooms and mock scanner only for the times you need them to work with your study participants, and limit the number of simultaneously booked rooms as much as possible. If you are having trouble finding a space to work with a study participant on the day of your scan, please contact [email protected].

iLab User Guide

If a scan is canceled within 48 hours of its scheduled start time, research groups will be charged the full price of the scan.

The only exceptions to this rule are:

1. if the canceled time slot is reserved by another group for a paid scan
2. if the same group schedules the same amount of paid time the day of the canceled scan.

If you believe there are extenuating circumstances, let us know.  In very rare situations, we may be able to adjust billing, although this will be decided on a case-by-case basis. 

Scan groups will have access to the scanner and experiment area at their scheduled start time. Make sure to include time for participant and equipment setup, as well as breakdown and removal, in the amount of time you book. If additional time is needed for setup or breakdown, please account for this when scheduling. Be respectful of other groups and do not enter the console area before your time unless permission is granted by the preceding group. Groups must clean up and leave the scanner and console room by the end of their scheduled time unless they receive permission from the next group.

We currently offer users cloud storage and processing through XNAT. To get started, please navigate to this page and use your UNI to sign up. If you do now have a UNI, contact us for access. Each individual project listed will have an owner, who should be able to grant you access to that project. We have many containers available to process your data on the cloud, including BIDS mapping, dcm2bids, mriqc, fmriprep, qsiprep, and more. Please reach out to us for help implementing your pipeline, or to collaborate on adding new analyses or other features.

To use our XNAT service, users must transfer studies to the XNAT receiver on the console immediately after a study. Note that our XNAT server is hosted on AWS, which is not HIPAA certified. For RFMH researchers without Columbia appointments, this process needs to be circumvented. Researchers must let the MRI Platform team know before setting up a protocol if the data cannot be stored on AWS.

Note that the MRI console itself only provides temporary storage that is not backed up. It is the responsibility of researchers to transfer data (dicoms and/or raw k-space files) to a remote server or local hard drive as soon as there study is over. If not done immediately, there is a risk that data will be lost.

Per Columbia IRB policy, any study which collects human anatomical scans must have radiology evaluation for incidental findings (IFs). During each MRI session, a level III trained user must send the scans to the RADIO PACS dicom receiver. 

A designated member from each study must have a RedCap account. After a scan, the user should check RedCap for the radiologist findings. Every study needs a process for informing participants about IFs, if any are found. 

See our Incidental Findings Manual for full details of policies, procedures, and instructions.

Pilot time

Each new study is granted up to 2 hours of unpaid scan time to optimize and debug sequences, experiment code, or any other aspects of a study that need tweaking.

Technical Development Time

For more extensive development needs, we offer limited technical development time at the discretion of the MRI Platform. Development time will be approved on a case-by-case basis, depending on the aims, amount of time requested, time of day, use of MR Platform Staff, and other factors. Development time can involve either phantoms or human volunteers. Volunteers must fill out the Technical Development Volunteer Form. 

To request technical development time, please complete the Technical Development Initiation Form.  You will hear from Managing Director Raphael Gerraty shortly after. Researchers will be asked to confirm that data acquired during development time will not be used for research purposes or included in any publications. Technical Development time must be scheduled by a member of the MRI Platform team not more than 24 hours before the scheduled session, and can be canceled at any time to be replaced with a paid study. Images acquired during technical development time will be made available to all Platform staff and users via Flywheel. After Raphael approves your tech dev request, use the Tech Dev Session Scheduler Form to request individual sessions.

For more extensive development requests that may benefit the Platform as a whole, please contact Savannah Smith for information about Technical Development Awards.

Zuckerman Institute Seed Grant Program for MR Studies

The Zuckerman Institute offers a Seed Grant Program to fund scientifically excellent MR studies, supporting the acquisition of preliminary data to help the Columbia community secure external funding for MR research. The program funds basic and applied, cognitive, clinical, and methodological studies aligning with the Institute's scientific mission.

Applications are subject to resource availability and are evaluated based on:

• Merit: High scientific quality and importance.
• Need: Insufficient current funding for the study.
• Grant Plan: Commitment to submitting an external grant proposal within 12 months, including scanning at the Zuckerman Institute.
• Track Record: Eligibility to apply for an NIH R01 (tenure-track not required, postdoc position not sufficient). Previous Seed Grant recipients must have submitted an external grant proposal.

Applicants should indicate when they need a decision to ensure a positive impact on their major grant proposal.

Interested researchers can fill out the application and email it to Savannah Smith.

If your publication has made use of the MRI Platform for image acquisition, analysis, or support, include a statement in the acknowledgments section, such as:

• Imaging was performed with support from the Zuckerman Institute’s MRI Platform.
• We would like to thank Zuckerman Institute's MRI Platform for guidance with imaging and analysis.

If you received support or advice from specific staff members that improved your experiment, image acquisition, or analysis, please  acknowledge that support by including that person's name and their contribution:

• We would like to thank [Name] and [Name] from Zuckerman Institute's MRI Platform for guidance with imaging and analysis.

Platform staff should be considered for co-authorship if they have made a significant intellectual contribution, developed new tools, or played a key role in the study or study's design, execution, or interpretation