Development of a Novel Online Atlas of Cardiac MRI Anatomy

Purpose: Learning to interpret cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) studies is a daunting task for radiology and cardiology trainees, complicated by challenging anatomy in unfamiliar orthogonal projections. The current generation demands easy access to online educational material, however to date there is no freely accessible comprehensive online atlas of CMR anatomy. This dearth of quick, relevant reference material leaves trainees feeling lost right out of the gate, slow-tracking their potential to interpret cardiac morphology and function. Recognizing this need, we have developed and begun to implement a novel CMR web atlas to improve PGY-4 and PGY-5 learners' ability to correctly identify anatomical structures on CMR and accelerate their approach to interpretation.

Methods/Materials: Representative steady state free precession (SSFP) CMR images in short axis, long axis, and other orthogonal views/series were acquired from healthy normal studies previously imaged at our institution, deidentified, and exported to imaging processing software. Labels identifying cardiac and extracardiac structures were added in two parallel sets. The slides were exported as .jpg files to a web-based storage platform, and a simple HTML interface was designed linking each image or series to a central homepage. A permanent homepage URL was made available to senior residents, junior fellows, and attending physicians in the radiology and cardiology departments at our institution.

Results: This represents the initial pilot effort demonstrating the need for an enhanced CMR atlas and the feasibility of its creation. It was developed to address a known gap in the accepted standard of CMR training. The atlas has been well received among faculty and trainees, and initial feedback from both departments is overwhelmingly positive.

Conclusions: A free, accessible, and comprehensive online atlas of CMR anatomy is now available. Large scale deployment is easy, practical, and will enhance the resident and fellow training experience in ways previously unaddressed. Future and ongoing work involves quantifying the utility of the atlas with closed- and open-book anatomy quizzes and self-evaluations.