The Center for Advanced Computed Tomography Imaging Services (CACTIS)

CACTIS Upload Instructions

CACTIS Upload Instructions

CACTIS Upload Instructions

You will need to upload the following research documents numbered 2 through 5 (as applicable) for the CACTIS review:

Please addend all files for upload by adding the investigator's last name and the IRB number before each document title. Use xxxxxx if IRB number is not available.

Example of original file title: "Protocol - Safety and efficacy of Spirituous-X001 in subjects with Pulmonary Fibrosis"

Example of adding investigator's name and IRB # before the file title for CACTIS upload: "SMITH-102030-Protocol -Safety and efficacy of Spirituous-X001"

Approval will be withheld pending the receipt of the IRB approval letter and dated consent form.

A copy of the radiation safety approval letter must be on file prior to full CACTIS approval

If yes, submit a separate application to the Clinical Imaging Core: https://is.gd/clinicalimaging

CDs for CACTIS service center accounts: Images will be de-identified by the radiology research clinical imaging core at no additional fee. Requests must be sent to Lisa.Angilletta@pennmedicine.upenn.edu within 24 hours of imaging and the CD request will take about 1 week to process.
sFTP accounts: Your sponsor may provide you with software that allows de-identification and sFTP uploading of images from your personal computer, but you may still require a CD to do this. The CIC (Clinical imaging core) may be able to assist you with sFTP set-up and training for a fee of $100. Contact Kathleen Thomas or Tom Ferrara for more information. The transfer of imaging data from Penn to off-site imaging management companies is the responsibility of the investigator and the study personnel.

CDs for non-service-center accounts: You may request CDs at the ground floor radiology imaging file room. The cost of burning images to a CD is $5 per CD, and you must set-up an account with the radiology imaging library. Account set-up takes two weeks, contact the radiology file room or Cathy Oliva of IOD via cathy.oliva@uphs.upenn.edu for an application. Note: the file room only puts the case number on the CD labels, make sure this is OK with the sponsor. The CIC core can process CDs for you, but the cost is $25 per CD.

Radiology reports are not automatically provided as part of the research service. This cost is not included as part of the CT scan. If you would like to have a report generated you must arrange this with the radiologist on your study or use one of the reader fees. In some protocols, it is more beneficial to have only one radiologist read all of the research exams for consistency in the reporting. Compensation for this effort is negotiated separately between the radiologist and the PI. It is strongly recommended that reports of research images be recorded in the medical record, but there are times when you need a report that is only documented in the research record. This should be discussed with a radiologist.

Special evaluations or measurements that are research-study specific, require that a radiologist be part of the research study team, and he or she must be listed as a sub-investigator.

Reader Service Fee

The reader service provides a routine clinical report and/or a report when screening for incidental findings are required. It will generally not provide research-study-specific measurements if they are beyond what is typically included in a routine clinical report. The reader service may not be used when research-specific evaluations or measurements are required per the protocol.

Policy: A radiologist must review all research CT scans for incidental findings when the images are of diagnostic quality and could reveal incidental findings that are unexpected and unrelated to the research question.

When may the reader service be used?
A. When a patient is under active treatment at Penn and the images are being sent off site for analysis by the research team, a report for incidental findings by a Penn radiologist is required.
B. When a patient is not under active treatment at Penn, but is in a research study and is not receiving similar imaging for cancer or other conditions and the research images are of diagnostic quality that could reveal unexpected incidental findings, then a report for incidental findings is also required.

Who reads for the reader service?
Any radiologist reading on the day of the exam, based on the anatomic reader sections listed below.

If yes, then it is the responsibility of the study team to determine and document in their records non-pregnancy. The CT technologist will only ask if there is a possibility of pregnancy.

CACTIS no longer requires urine pregnancy test 24 hours prior to the CT scan if the study team is already performing these tests to exclude pregnancy such as is common with new drug studies, chemotherapeutic agents, etc.

If the protocol does not include pregnancy as an exclusion, then a pregnancy test is required 24 hours prior to the CT scan to rule out pregnancy. CACTIS excludes pregnant women from research studies because of the possible harmful effects to the fetus from the x-radiation.

Visit the website listed above or contact the CACTIS coordinator (215-662-4595)

CT Contrast Agents:

Standard CT contrast agents currently used at HUP/Perelman
1. IV contrast agent used at HUP: ISOVUE 370, cost $25/per injection
2. Oral contrast agent used at HUP: Redicat2, cost $10/per single use
3. Other

Will the following contrast agents be required?

Please provide parameters through the questions below. If your study includes a separate scanning protocol for the CT, please fill in the below information and attach a copy of the scanning protocol to this application.

Any additional post-processing will be charged at a separate rate. This rate must be negotiated and signed off on prior to the study start date.