Introducing DESIRE: The national Data Science Infrastructure in Radiotherapy-project

The first major activities of the Novo Nordisk Foundation-supported DESIRE-project are now taking place.

The core group of DESIRE coordinators and employees were gathered in October to discuss work plans, motivations and distribution of tasks.
The core group of DESIRE coordinators and employees were gathered in October to discuss work plans, motivations and distribution of tasks.

The Data Science Infrastructure in Radiotherapy (DESIRE) project will enable overview and collection of all images, dose plans and other relevant information from all Danish radiotherapy departments. This will provide a unique platform for data science in radiation oncology enabling Danish data scientists to use complete and curated data for data mining, deep learning and AI-based automation, including segmentation, dose planning, quality assurance and model-based prediction of outcome. A key element and task is to continue the operation and further development of the national dose plan bank (DcmCollab).

The national DESIRE organisation is now in place. Full- and part time employees include data scientists/software developers and medical physicists from across Denmark. The employees will carry out the DESIRE activities in collaboration with the national coordinators, Christian Rønn Hansen, Ivan Vogelius and Stine Korreman.

With a steering committee consisting of acknowledged data scientists and scholars, the head Medical physicists and the national coordinators, a solid strategic foundation is set.

The core group of coordinators and employees were gathered in October to discuss work plans, motivations and distribution of tasks. This is key in order to establish ensure close collaborative relations with colleauges from across the country. Next step is initiating the first highly prioritised projects.


Novel initiatives coming up

Initial DESIRE projects will be presented and discussed at the upcoming national user meeting that is combined with the DCCC Radiotherapy annual meeting, November 30th-December 1st. An important part of the meeting will be breakout sessions, where all the meeting participants – i.e. current/future users of the DESIRE infrastructure and resources – will be invited to give feedback on activities and ideas.

DESIRE activities will be carried out within four main ambitions:

  • Expanding data access
  • Data curation
  • Framework for open-source access
  • Education in data science

Read more about the DESIRE project at our new DESIRE subsite and follow the project on all DCCC Radiotherapy channels.