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Medical imaging: A new era of precision and holistic imaging

Imaging is a cornerstone of modern medicine that strives to offer accurate individualized diagnosis and prognosis for the thousands of medical conditions known so far. This realm is continuously being modernized by an ever-growing transdisciplinary research that puts the wellbeing of patients at the core of its mission, covering a broad spectrum of topics in theoretical, bioengineering and clinical domains. This transdisciplinary research involves cutting-edge algorithmic research and hardware and software development with the ultimate aim to open new frontiers in advanced data acquisition and data processing. Research in acquisition techniques is pushing the boundaries of what is possible with imaging in terms of dimension and scale, speed, resolution, dynamics, sensitivity, contrast, portability and safety, with a plethora of optimal imaging protocols in different imaging modalities such as MRI, PET, SPECT, CT, EEG, MEG, NIRS and ultrasound. Research in data processing is growing exponentially, hereby transforming the kind of inferences one can make from medical images, including optimal algorithmic in morphological processing, image enhancement, image reconstruction, denoising, multimodal fusion, segmentation and classification, pattern recognition, texture, shape and motion measurements, machine learning, multivariate statistical processing, databasing and data mining, computational modelling, and radiomics. These new developments are ushering in a new era of precision medical imaging where personalized clinical decisions are based on accurate imaging-driven quantitative measures. It is in these exciting times of progress and growth in medical imaging that The International Journal of Imaging Systems and Technology (IMA) is positioning itself as a platform that celebrates this endeavor. As Editor-in-Chief, I welcome your contributions in this field of imaging. I invite you to consider IMA as a forum for the exchange of your ideas and results relevant to imaging systems, including imaging physics and informatics. While the journal is particularly interested in brain mapping research and neuroimaging, it is also open to imaging studies of the human body and on animals that describe novel diagnostic imaging and analysis methods. I believe this will bring together different research communities, and I hope that other researchers working on other parts of the human body will find many interesting parallels with current research in neuroimaging and brain methods that has gone through an unprecedented era of major discoveries in cutting-edge technologies and sophisticated modelling methods. This cross-talking between communities interested in different body parts will make possible the ability to analyze and model very large-scale whole-body images and to boost their translational potential for a holistic understanding of the morphology, function and physiology of the body. Many breakthroughs of the last decades are revolutionizing current practices and protocols, offering novel means to accurately depict the structure and function of the whole human body and to map anatomical and physiological processes at multiple micro-meso-macro levels. To reflect this strategic mission, IMA's new full aims and scope supports original research in structural and functional imaging of any part of the human body, with the aim to learn from different subfields in terms of relevant algorithmic research, hardware and software development. Technical, theoretical, and clinical research in both normal and clinical populations is encouraged. Submissions describing methods, software, databases, replication studies as well as negative results are also considered. The variety of research questions addressed in the current issue of Volume 29 illustrates the type of research published in IMA. The journal's publication criteria are based on the rigor of the methodology reported and high ethical standards. This is ensured by our highly active editorial board members, reviewers and staff. I am deeply grateful to all the editorial board members, reviewers and IMA staff for their dedication and support. Together we aim to move the journal forward and to make it one of the recognized forums in the interdisciplinary field of medical imaging. We welcome your contributions to IMA!