Statistical survey of open source medical image databases on the Internet

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Nowadays, more and more open source medical imaging databases are published on the Internet for medical teaching, algorithm development, and medical research. However, a statistical survey of these databases is still lacking. In this survey, we summarize the current status of open source medical image databases on the Internet. The aim is to make it easier for everyone to find and use open source medical image data. Methods: Information about publicly available medical image databases was collected by searching for scientific papers and Internet search engines. Based on the collected information, the number of databases and the number of images were counted for different diseases, body parts, imaging modalities, and countries. Results: Cancer, particularly breast cancer and lung cancer, ranked top in database numbers among all diseases. The breast, brain, lung, and chest are the top four body parts in terms of database numbers. Computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and X-ray are the most common imaging modalities in the open source datasets. The USA and the Netherlands are the top two countries who own the most databases. Conclusions: The rankings for diseases and body parts were closely related to the diseases morbidity and the health-care expenditure of a country. The number of open sources of medical imaging databases is still growing; there is a need for continuous statistical research on their existence status in the coming years. The list of all the collected databases is opened on the Internet (https://docs.qq.com/sheet/DQWF0QlZKVHpHU1Za).