Current Technologies & Applications
Focus
The Medical Image Processing Group (MIPG) was established in 1976 at SUNY, Buffalo and moved to Penn Radiology in 1981. MIPG is headed by Dr. Udupa since 1982. Drs. Udupa & Torigian have collaborated since 2005, and Dr. Tong joined MIPG in 2011.
MIPG at Penn Radiology is one of the oldest and longest active leading research groups in the world engaged in research on the processing, visualization, and analysis of medical images and the medical and clinical applications of these computerized methods. MIPG developed and distributed the first software package for 3D medical image visualization and analysis in 1980. From 1976 to the present, it continues to develop advanced analytics and AI methods.
Some areas of current research study include body-wide Automatic Anatomy Recognition (AAR), body-wide disease quantification (DQ), body composition analysis (BCA), radiation therapy planning, pre-treatment planning in respiratory dysfunction via quantitative dynamic MRI (QdMRI), particularly thoracic insufficiency syndrome (TIS), and treatment outcome assessment and outcome prediction in a host of conditions including lymphoma, incisional hernia, etc.
MIPG has pioneered the concept and implementation of hybrid intelligence (HI), a synergistic combination of natural intelligence (NI) and artificial intelligence (AI), for use with body-wide medical images in a wide variety of clinical scenarios.
Segmentation of representative organs in thorax and abdomen from CT images.
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Faculty And Staff
Jayaram K. Udupa, PhD
Chief of Section
Professor of Radiologic Science in Radiology
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Drew A. Torigian, MD, MA
Clinical Director
Professor of Radiology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
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Yubing Tong, PhD
Director of Operations
Senior Research Investigator
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Chris Ciesielski, PhD
Adjunct Professor
Caiyun Wu, MS
Research Specialist D
Tiange Liu, PhD
Post-Doctoral Fellow
You Hao, PhD
Post-Doctoral Fellow
Yadavendra Nin
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Arezoo Shahidzadehmanshadi, MD
Azadeh Shahidzadehmanshadi, MD
Shahbegh Kalra, MS
Systems Manager
Recent Publications
- Hao Y, Udupa JK, Tong Y, Wu C, McDonough JM, Gogel S, Mayer OH, Alnoury M, Cahill PJ, Anari JB. Quantifying normal diaphragmatic motion and shape and their developmental changes via dynamic MRI. CHEST Pulmonary. 2025 March;3(1):100115.
- Liu T, Bai Q, Torigian DA, Tong Y, Udupa JK. VSmTrans: A hybrid paradigm integrating self-attention and convolution for 3D medical image segmentation. Med Image Anal. 2024 Dec;98:103295. doi: 10.1016/j.media.2024.103295. Epub 2024 Aug 24. PMID: 39217673; PMCID: PMC11381179.
- Tong Y, Udupa JK, McDonough JM, Wu C, Xie L, Rajapakse CS, Gogel S, Sarkar S, Mayer OH, Anari JB, Torigian DA, Cahill PJ. Characterizing Lung Parenchymal Aeration via Standardized Signal Intensity from Free-breathing 4D Dynamic MRI in Phantoms, Healthy Children, and Pediatric Patients with Thoracic Insufficiency Syndrome. Radiol Cardiothorac Imaging. 2024 Aug;6(4):e230262. doi: 10.1148/ryct.230262. PMID: 39051878; PMCID: PMC11369656.
- Xie L, Xu Y, Zheng M, Chen Y, Sun M, Archer MA, Mao W, Tong Y, Wan Y. An anthropomorphic diagnosis system of pulmonary nodules using weak annotation-based deep learning. Comput Med Imaging Graph. 2024 Dec;118:102438. doi: 10.1016/j.compmedimag.2024.102438. Epub 2024 Oct 10. PMID: 39426342; PMCID: PMC11620937.
- McCarthy BE, Feng R, Torigian DA, Tong Y, Fritz JS, Minhas JK, Mazurek JA, Smith KA, Palevsky HI, Pugliese SC, Homer NZ, MacLean MR, Udupa JK, Al-Naamani N. Epicardial Adipose Tissue as an Independent Risk Factor for Mortality in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension. Chest. 2025 May;167(5):1481-1492. doi: 10.1016/j.chest.2024.11.020. Epub 2024 Nov 28. PMID: 39613149; PMCID: PMC12106954.
- Lomer NB, Ashoobi MA, Ahmadzadeh AM, Sotoudeh H, Tabari A, Torigian DA. MRI-based Radiomics for Predicting Prostate Cancer Grade Groups: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Diagnostic Test Accuracy Studies. Acad Radiol. 2025 Jun;32(6):3429-3452. doi: 10.1016/j.acra.2024.12.006. Epub 2024 Dec 31. PMID: 39743477.
- Long M, Alnoury M, Udupa JK, Tong Y, Wu C, Poole N, Mannikeri S, Ky B, Feigenberg SJ, Zou JW, O'Reilly S, Torigian DA. Prediction of Radiation Therapy Induced Cardiovascular Toxicity from Pretreatment CT Images in Patients with Thoracic Malignancy via an Optimal Biomarker Approach. Acad Radiol. 2025 Apr;32(4):1895-1905. doi: 10.1016/j.acra.2025.01.012. Epub 2025 Jan 26. PMID: 39870564; PMCID: PMC11981848.
- Ewing JN, Gala Z, Voytik M, Broach RB, Udupa JK, Torigian DA, Tong Y, Fischer JP. A cross-sectional survey investigating surgeon perceptions of pre-operative risk prediction models incorporating radiomic features. Hernia. 2025 Feb 18;29(1):97. doi: 10.1007/s10029-025-03292-0. PMID: 39966191.
- Ahmadzadeh AM, Lomer NB, Torigian DA. Radiomics and machine learning models for diagnosing microvascular invasion in cholangiocarcinoma: a systematic review and meta-analysis of diagnostic test accuracy studies. Clin Imaging. 2025 May;121:110456. doi: 10.1016/j.clinimag.2025.110456. Epub 2025 Mar 13. PMID: 40088548.
- Pierson SK, Brandstadter JD, Torigian DA, Bagg A, Lechowicz MJ, Alapat D, Casper C, Chadburn A, Chandrakasan S, Dispenzieri A, Fosså A, Hoffmann C, Ide M, Kurzrock R, Mukherjee S, Nasta S, Navarro JT, Noy A, Oksenhendler E, Bustamante MS, Shyamsundar S, Streetly M, Wong RSM, Zhang L, Lim MS, Srkalovic G, van Rhee F, Fajgenbaum DC. Characterizing the heterogeneity of Castleman disease and oligocentric subtype: findings from the ACCELERATE registry. Blood Adv. 2025 Apr 22;9(8):1952-1965. doi: 10.1182/bloodadvances.2024014391. PMID: 39951615; PMCID: PMC12018988.
- Fanta O, Patil S, Werner T, Torigian DA, Alavi A. Reproducibility of 18F-Sodium Fluoride Positron Emission Tomography for Assessing Microcalcification in Coronary Arterial and Thoracic Aortic Atherosclerosis: Is the Signal below the Resolution of PET? Curr Cardiol Rep. 2025 May 14;27(1):88. doi: 10.1007/s11886-025-02240-9. PMID: 40369378; PMCID: PMC12078425.
- Hassani S, Tong Y, Lomer NB, Udupa JK, Wu C, McDonough JM, Gogel S, Mayer OH, Biko DM, Cahill PJ, Anari JB, Torigian DA. Comparative analysis of thoracic structure and function using CT and dynamic MRI in pediatric thoracic insufficiency syndrome with and without neuromuscular disease. Spine Deform. 2025 May 6. doi: 10.1007/s43390-025-01095-y. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 40327258.
- Tong Y, Udupa JK, McDonough JM, Xie L, Wu C, Akhtar Y, Hosseini M, Alnoury M, Shaghaghi S, Gogel S, Biko DM, Mayer OH, Torigian DA, Cahill PJ, Anari JB. Do Rib-Based Anchors Impair Chest Wall Motion in Early Onset Scoliosis? - A Novel Investigation via Dynamic MRI. J Pediatr Orthop. 2025 Jun 4. doi: 10.1097/BPO.0000000000003015. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 40488411.
- Liu T, Li J, Torigian DA, Tong Y, Xiong Q, Zhang K, Udupa JK. Diffusion semantic segmentation model: A generative model for medical image segmentation based on joint distribution. Med Phys. 2025 Jul;52(7):e17928. doi: 10.1002/mp.17928. Epub 2025 Jun 8. PMID: 40483601.
- Lomer NB, Abdi S, Ashoobi MA, Ahmadzadeh AM, Ghasemi A, Torigian DA. Accuracy of CT-Based Radiomics Models for Preoperative Grading of Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Acad Radiol. 2025 Jun 16:S1076-6332(25)00526-4. doi: 10.1016/j.acra.2025.05.049. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 40527677.
- Mortazi A, Udupa JK, Hosseini M, Tong Y, Torigian DA. Virtual cutaneous area severity index (vCASI): A comprehensive methodology for quantitative skin disease assessment on positron emission tomography images. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2025 Jun 23. doi: 10.1007/s00259-025-07423-8. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 40545498
Contact Us
Medical Image Processing Group
Department of Radiology
3710 Hamilton Walk
#602W, 6th Floor, Goddard Laboratories
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19104
Cathy Oliva
catherine.oliva@pennmedicine.upenn.edu
Phone: (215) 615-8042
Learn more about the MIPG