IBEX: an open infrastructure software platform to facilitate collaborative work in radiomics.

Area of Science:

• Quantitative imaging analysis
• Radiomics research
• Biomarker discovery

Background:

• Radiomics offers significant potential for quantifying tumor phenotypes.
• Current software limitations hinder radiomics development and application.
• A need exists for robust, flexible radiomics infrastructure.

Purpose of the Study:

• Develop the Imaging Biomarker Explorer (IBEX), an open-source software platform.
• To support and streamline common radiomics workflow tasks.
• To facilitate multimodality image analysis, feature extraction, and model validation.

Main Methods:

• IBEX developed using MATLAB and C/C++ with a model-view-controller architecture.
• Incorporates unit testing and function handle programming for modularity.
• Features built-in importers, filters, and feature extraction algorithms, with extensibility for custom modules.

Main Results:

• IBEX is intuitive, powerful, and user-friendly for researchers of varying technical skills.
• The software is validated and runs on Windows with minimal RAM requirements.
• Version 1.0 beta of IBEX, including source code, is available for download.

Conclusions:

• IBEX successfully streamlines radiomics workflows, enhancing research efficiency.
• The platform's transparency, flexibility, and portability accelerate radiomics research.
• IBEX facilitates clinical translation of radiomics findings.