National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center
National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center
The NIA Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centers Program
National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center

SCAN Initiative Updates

The SCAN initiative is a collaboration between NACC, UC Berkeley, Mayo Clinic, University of Michigan, UC Davis, and LONI, and is funded by the National Institute on Aging. The goal of SCAN will be to promote standardization of PET and MR image acquisition so that images can be combined across multiple centers.

For more information about the SCAN initiative, please visit scan.naccdata.org

*Please note that the SCAN initiative does not accept non-SCAN compliant MRI and PET images. Existing MRI and PET images collected before January 1, 2021, and prospective images that don't meet SCAN protocol are still accepted by NACC - learn more here.

scan pipeline

Pipeline for standardized MRI/PET data collection, harmonization, analysis, and sharing.

The SCAN Dashboards are coming soon

About the SCAN Public Dashboard

The SCAN Public Dashboard will track the number of participants with SCAN-compliant MRI/PET images and total number of images submitted by each ADRC to SCAN. This resource is meant to provide ADRCs and researchers with up-to-date information on the number of standard images that are available for analysis.
We anticipate this resource being made available in Summer of 2023.
Data Front Door overview
Example image of the SCAN Public Dashboard

Information included in the Dashboard:

  • Each ADRC's current SCAN readiness and participation status

    • An ADRC's SCAN readiness status refers to the MRI checklist and/or PET checklist steps that have been completed by a site to prepare to participate in the SCAN study.

      • Ready to Submit Data: site has completed the checklist and has submitted data to SCAN or is ready to submit data to SCAN
      • Not submitting data: site has not completed the MRI and/or PET checklist and is not submitting data to SCAN
  • Total number of MRI and PET participants for whom your site has submitted data to SCAN (only includes participants whose IDs are valid, or were validated through the SCAN data Audit in March 2023)
  • Total number of standard MRI exams and series submitted to SCAN that are available for analysis
  • Total number of PET scans (amyloid or tau) submitted to SCAN that are available for analysis

Information not included in the Dashboard:

  • SCAN Analysis data
    • NACC anticipates being able to send analysis data (such as SUVRs and volumes) back to ADRCs in Summer of 2023. See details here. SCAN and NACC are working on sending SCAN analysis data back to ADRCs now that the SCAN data audit has been completed by all ADRCs. Once the audited data is processed, integrated, and analyzed, NACC will return this data to each ADRC.
    • ADRD researchers around the world will have access to this data via NACC's Quick Access File by September 2023.
  • Private ADRC-specific PET and MRI data
    • The MRI and PET summary and QC status information will be made available through the ADRC Portals, see more information about the private ADRC-specific SCAN dashboards below.
  • Data for participants without existing NACC IDs
    • Sites should continue to collect imaging data for all participants. For the time being LONI will only be accepting data submissions for participants who have existing NACC IDs.
    • In the future, we will have new systems in place to allow data to be submitted for those participants who do not currently have existing NACC IDs.
Data Front Door overview
Example image of the private ADRC-specific SCAN Dashboards

About the Private ADRC-Specific SCAN Dashboards:

Once the NACC ADRC Portals are live, each ADRC will have access to private SCAN MRI and PET dashboards for their individual ADRC that will:

  1. Enable them to track the QC status of their MRI and PET submissions, allowing them to rapidly address errors.
  2. Serve as an auditable record of all SCAN MRI data submitted to SCAN by a given ADRC, downloadable as a csv file.

Information that will be included in the private ADRC-specific SCAN dashboards includes:

  • All PET summary and QC data submitted by each ADRC including:
    • NACC IDs
    • PTIDs
    • PET study date and time
    • image UID, scanner model
    • PET radiotracer used
    • whether the scan passed QC or not
    • QC comments (why the scan failed QC, if failed)
  • All MRI summary and QC data submitted by each ADRC including:
    • NACC IDs
    • PTIDs
    • MRI study date and time
    • scanner model
    • study UID
    • exam compliance
    • study comments
    • series date and time
    • series number
    • series type
    • whether the series was released for analysis or not
    • whether the series passed protocol or not
    • comments on why the series did not pass protocol
    • visual QC status and comments

When and how will SCAN summary data be returned to the ADRCs?

All ADRCs that have contributed data to SCAN were asked to perform a data audit for their SCAN submissions in March of 2023.
SCAN and NACC are working on sending SCAN analysis data back to ADRCs now that the SCAN data audit has been completed by all ADRCs. Once the audited data is processed, integrated, and analyzed, NACC will return SCAN summary and analysis data (SUVRs and volumes included) to each ADRC via REDCap.
In the future, SCAN summary data will be available to ADRCs in real-time in addition to your UDS data via the site-specific ADRC portals hosted in NACC's new data repository.Anticipated availability is Summer of 2023.
If you have questions about the SCAN data audit, please contact nacchelp@uw.edu.
Data Front Door overview
New NACC Data Platform

About the ADRC Portals:

The ADRC Portals will provide ADRCs with self-service access to view, download, and audit their real-time data. These portals will replace inefficient static monthly reports with modern real-time ADRC-specific data portals (ADRC Portals), fulfilling an emergent request from ADRCs to have better access to their data submissions.

The ADRC Portals will provide ADRCs with access to six core data/metadata types:

  • UDS
  • Neuopathology
  • Non-standart MRI/PET
  • Biospecimen (NCRAD) and Genetic/genomic (NIAGADS)
  • Participant Diversity Metrics

NACC is currently working to build the ADRC Portals within NACC's new Data Platform (powered by Flywheel). Flywheel will support the need to make this data accessible only to designated ADRC representatives, requiring management by ADRC personnel and the technology platform to allow access control for appropriate viewers. NACC is using User Centered Design to develop dashboards to adapt the Flywheel interface to the ADRC programs' unique needs.

What is the current process for submitting MRI/PET images?

As of March 17, 2023, sites will only be able to submit SCAN MRI/PET images to LONI for participants that already have a NACCID. This change will prevent errors (i.e., duplicate NACC IDs for participants, etc.) from being introduced into the database and the need for future SCAN data audits.
Please note that this is a temporary change. Sites are encouraged to continue collecting SCAN data on all of their participants but will not be able to submit data for participants without existing NACC IDs until we have implemented new systems to all data to be submitted for those participants who do not already have NACC IDs.
As part of the communication that was sent out in March of 2023, NACC is gathering input from sites (via the survey linked in the email) that will be used to define requirements for the new LONI upload interface, which will minimize errors by requiring ADRCs to provide two identifying variables when submitting SCAN data.

What about non-SCAN compliant MRI/PET images that are submitted to NACC?

As of March 17, 2023, sites will only be able to submit non-SCAN compliant images to NACC for participants that already have existing NACC IDs.

How are identifiers used for the SCAN data?

When submitting MRI/PET images to SCAN via the LONI uploader, you are currently asked to enter the Subject ID or PTID. This number is different from the NACCID as described below:
  • Subject ID or PTID: this is the ADRC-managed participant ID, or "local ID". Formats vary by ADRC.
  • NACCID: this is the NACC-managed participant ID. It is a string with the prefix 'NACC' followed by 6 digits.
  • ADCID: this is the NACC-managed center ID. This is a two-digit number.
Each PTID and ADCID pair maps to a unique NACCID.

How are MRI and PET imaging submissions from ADRCs currently being tracked?

SCAN-compliant MRI/PET images submitted to LONI as part of the SCAN initiative:
  • The NACC monthly reports for each ADRC do not include the MRI/PET images submitted to LONI for the SCAN project in the image counts.
  • We will not be adding SCAN images to these static monthly reports because we are in the process of modernizing the NACC Data Platform and complete SCAN-compliant image counts will soon be available through the SCAN dashboards.
Non-SCAN compliant MRI/PET images submitted to NACC:
  • NACC is currently in discussion with NIA and the Imaging Steering Committee to determine how legacy MRI and PET images will be tracked and reported at NACC as we transition to our modern Data Platform and ADRC portals.
  • Your monthly report should currently reflect the correct number of legacy MRI and PET images that have been submitted to by your site to NACC.
  • There were previously some errors in these counts due to a bug. However, we believe all errors with counts of images at NACC have now been corrected.

How will MRI and PET imaging submissions be tracked in the future?

Coming soon as part of NACC's modernization. As NACC completes its transition onto our new modern data platform, we will launch the following resources:

  • Public SCAN Dashboard

    The Public SCAN dashboard will track the number of SCAN-compliant MRI/PET images and the number of participants that images have been submitted for by each ADRC to LONI/NACC. The prototype for this dashboard was demonstrated at the 2022 Fall ADRC meeting. Anticipated availability is Summer of 2023.

  • Private ADRC-Specific SCAN Dashboards:

    Each ADRC will also have access to private SCAN MRI and PET dashboards for their individual ADRC that will a) enable them to track the QC status of their MRI and PET submissions, allowing them to rapidly address errors, and b) serve as an auditable record of all SCAN MRI data submitted to LONI/NACC by a given ADRC, downloadable as a csv file.
NACC is currently in discussion with NIA and the Imaging Steering Committee to determine how legacy MRI and PET images will be tracked and reported at NACC as we transition to our modern Data Platform. We will keep you updated!

How will ADRCs who contribute data to SCAN be acknowledged?

NACC will build off the current NACC Data Use Agreement (DUA) policy to provide researchers with a comprehensive list of ADRCs and other related grants who have contributed their data to SCAN. All researchers and person(s) requesting data from NACC (including SCAN data in the future) must accept the NACC DUA policy.
The current NACC DUA policy requires authors to include the following statement acknowledging the NACC grant and Center support in presentations and the acknowledgments section of manuscripts:

“The NACC database is funded by NIA/NIH Grant U24 AG072122. NACC data are contributed by the NIA-funded ADRCs: P30 AG...., etc.”

As part of the data audit communication that was sent out in March of 2023, NACC is gathering input from sites (via the survey linked in the email) that will be used to evaluate whether this proposed acknowledgement plan is acceptable to sites, prior to data being shared with researchers around the world.
If your site is involved in the SCAN initiative and you have additional grants or updates to include in the acknowledgements, please reach out to naccmail@uw.edu.

How and when can researchers access SCAN data?

SCAN Summary Data (Volumes and SUVRs):

Phase 1: Researchers will be able to access SCAN summary data through the NACC Quick Access File data request system. We anticipate that this will be available by September 2023.
NACC's Data Request System - learn more here
  • NACC currently provides UDS, neuropathology, and non-SCAN compliant MRI/PET data to researchers anywhere through our Quick Access File
  • It takes ~15 minutes for researcher to submit a data request
  • Researcher must sign a Data Use Agreement to access this data (NACC's current Data Use Agreement)
  • NACC has distributed more than 220 Quick Access Files since May 2022
Phase 2: NACC’s Data Front Door – Cohort selection, data visualization, and access
  • Allows self-service cohort selection
  • Provide the ability to download raw data directly

SCAN Raw Images:

SCAN MRI/PET images will be made available through LONI hopefully starting in summer of 2023.

Still have questions?

If you still have questions regarding SCAN data, MRI and PET imaging counts, and ADRC Monthly reports, please reach out to NACC at naccmail@uw.edu.
SCAN Initiative Logo
For more information about the SCAN initiative, please visit scan.naccdata.org.
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