RICORD resources

This page provides radiology organizations with the agreements, tools and instructions needed to submit data to the RSNA International COVID-19 Open Radiology Database (RICORD) in accordance with best practices, including patient security and privacy concerns.

Please follow the steps below to participate in this important initiative:

  1. Review the Data Inclusion Criteria and determine whether your institution can contribute the required and optional data requested.
  2. Review the De-identification Protocol and determine if your institution is able to meet the requirements.
  3. Have an authorized signatory at your organization read and sign the Data Submission Agreement.
  4. Extract, organize and de-identify your data, and transmit it to the RICORD data staging site following the data transfer instructions.

Data inclusion criteria

A core set of data will rapidly be made available for research. We plan to expand the volume and types of data in the RICORD repository over time.

Subject selection

Patients at least 18 years of age with chest imaging (CT and/or X-ray) for suspected COVID-19 infection (for example ICD-10-CM code U07.1 among discharge diagnosis).

A positive infection should be confirmed with one or more of the following:

  • RT-PCR test
  • Positive IgM antibody test
  • Clinical diagnosis using hospital specific criteria

A positive infection encompasses:

  • Patients who are diagnosed prior to hospitalization but still symptomatic during the hospitalization
  • Patients with a positive test or diagnosis during hospital admission
  • Patients who are symptomatic during the hospitalization and have a confirmed test available only after hospital discharge

Exclude:

  • Patients younger than 18 years of age
  • Patients who did not receive chest imaging (CT and/or X-ray)

Minimum COVID imaging data required

Imaging examinations:

  • Chest CT examination (axial series only, preferred slice thickness 2.5-5.0 mm; any protocol, body kernel preferred) of COVID-19 patients. And/or
  • Chest X-ray examination (any protocol) of COVID-19 patients

Data for each imaging examination:

  • Unique Patient ID (following de-identification)
  • Unique Imaging Exam ID
  • Age
  • Sex
  • COVID-19 positive confirmation testing method (PCR, serological, clinical)

COVID testing methods and other supporting clinical information should be provided in a spreadsheet format that correlates with the subject's imaging study information. View a sample spreadsheet.

Optional COVID-19 negative imaging data

Imaging examination type:

  • Chest CT exams (axial series only, preferred slice thickness 2.5-5.0 mm; any protocol, body kernel preferred) of COVID-19 negative patients. And/or
  • Chest X-ray exams (any protocol) of COVID-19 negative patients

Data for each imaging examination:

  • Patient ID (following de-identification)
  • Unique Imaging Exam ID
  • Age
  • Sex
  • COVID-19 negative confirmation testing method (PCR, serological)
  • Alternative diagnosis (if any)

Optional clinical data elements

If available, additional relevant clinical data elements for each patient are requested.

Data de-identification

Contributing sites are responsible for de-identifying imaging examinations and associated clinical information for inclusion in this public research and educational database. Please follow your institutional policies and procedures and adhere to locally applicable regulations and best practices.

RSNA has worked with experienced DICOM experts to develop a Data De-identification Protocol based on recognized standards and best practices. Please review to ensure that your de-identification procedures are able meet this protocol. Note that the protocol requires that a unique (pseudonymous) identifier be created for each subject.

RSNA has also developed Anonymizer, a free open-source DICOM de-identification software tool that implements the Data De-identification Protocol. Read the instructions on how to install and use Anonymizer.

Data submission agreement

Please have an authorized signatory read and send a signed copy of the Data Submission Agreement to informatics@rsna.org. It should contain a detailed description of the submission data including the imaging locations, number and modality of images, number of subjects, data elements and number of cases for supporting clinical data and associated analyses.

The terms of the agreement are identical to the National Cancer Institute's Cancer Imaging Archive (TCIA), which will be the platform initially used to share data with the research community.

Data transfer

RSNA has contracted with MD.ai to provide the data staging platform and annotation tools for RICORD. When your institution has signed the Data Submission Agreement, you will receive an email containing unique security information and a DICOM address for your institution to use in transferring data to the MD.ai staging platform.

Contact us

Please send any questions or concerns to informatics@rsna.org or visit our FAQ page . We have also created a discussion forum for participating sites and the RICORD task force.