Construction of an Imaging Centre of Excellence (ICE) at the new South Glasgow University Hospital

The synergy between imaging and genomics technologies has been recognised as being an important driver to the future development of Stratified or Precision Medicine. The benefits of stratified medicine are now globally recognised, and Scotland is uniquely placed to capitalise on this potential, owing to its strong academic research base, advanced electronic health records within the NHS, and a strong industry presence in genomics, bioinformatics and diagnostics. The South Glasgow University Hospital represents an investment to Glasgow and Scotland in the region of £1Billion. When it opens in 2015, the new hospital will be the largest in Western Europe and will include maternity, paediatric and adult services on a single site. The Imagine Centre of Excellence (ICE), located at the new hospital, will uniquely accommodate a 7 Tesla MRI scanner together with other imaging modalities for clinical and research use, including 3T MRI and high resolution multi-slice CT, all networked and sharing staff with the large number of service scanners within the main hospital. This state-of-the-art equipment will be housed alongside clinical academic imaging specialists, NHS clinical physics expertise, innovation space for industry, and potential for expansion of precision medicine activities.The University of Glasgow led the development of the Scotland-wide £20M Stratified Medicine Scotland Innovation Centre (SMS-IC), which will be based adjacent to the ICE building. The co-location of ICE and SMS-IC will therefore provide significant added value to both centres.

The creation of an internationally competitive centre in medical imaging incorporating NHS, academic and industry partners will allow Glasgow to support a much greater volume and variety of clinical trials and translational development than currently, including the associated supply chain. The facility will be co-located alongside commercial, learning, research and clinical facilities, and will be accessible to indust partners and collaborators thus ensuring spin off benefits to the local Scottish company base of specialist CROs and other service providers.

The proposed facility will maximise and facilitate the economic impact from the clinical research excellence at the new South Glasgow University Hospital, and ensure the hospital site becomes a clinical research-driven UK exemplar of a Life Sciences cluster. As such, the proposal fully aligns with the Scottish Life Sciences Strategy and the facility will add significant value to existing assets in Scotland.

The synergy between imaging and genomics technologies has been recognised by the Technology Strategy Board as being an important driver to the future development of Stratified or Precision Medicine. The benefits of stratified medicine are now globally recognised, and Scotland is uniquely placed to capitalise on this potential, owing to its strong academic research base, advanced electronic health records within the NHS, and a strong industry presence in genomics, bioinformatics and diagnostics. The University of Glasgow led the development of the Scotland-wide £20M Stratified Medicine Scotland Innovation Centre (SMS-IC), which will also based at the South Glasgow University Hospital campus. The focus of SMS-IC is on bringing together genome sequencing technology and the complex bioinformatics required to link genomic data with NHS clinical data to allow stratification of patients based on genetic profiles. The co-location of ICE and SMS-IC will therefore provide significant added value to both centres.

By linking clinical academics, NHS and industry together, the Imaging Centre of Excellence (ICE) will maximise and facilitate the economic impact from the clinical research excellence at the new South Glasgow University Hospital, and ensure the hospital site becomes a UK exemplar of a Life Sciences cluster. As such, the proposal fully aligns with the Scottish Life Sciences Strategy and the facility would add significant value to existing assets in Scotland.

The ICE building is being designed to allow direct ambulatory access for patients, and the building will be linked to the new Clinical Research Facility to allow clinical trials to benefit from the advanced imaging technologies. The Glasgow MRI facility will offer a resource that will be uniquely valuable for researchers across the country, and central to its goals will be the application of advanced technology to understanding of human disease. The ability to undertake the most advanced imaging across the entire spectrum of clinical problems, encompassing acutely unwell or dependent patients, is a key principle of the research imaging facility.
Importantly, NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde's catchment area covers a population of 2.8 million, and represents one of the most epidemiologically problematic areas of the UK including high co-morbidity and chronic disease. Therefore the clinical environment is certainly unique within the UK. Of course, for maximum clinical impact any imaging facility needs to be embedded within the hospital environment - so, for example, a 7T MRI scanner based in Oxford would not be of use to the large cohort of stroke patients in the West of Scotland. However, our ability to network with other 7T sites in the UK, as these develop, will contribute to the development of 7T skills, knowledge and expertise across the UK.

Ultimately the impact of ICE will extend to the whole patient population through the development of innovative diagnostics and medicines. It will also ensure that the new hospital becomes a UK exemplar for life sciences industry. NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde already has the largest Clinical Physics NHS department in the UK and the largest imaging modality assets in Europe. The co-location of the Imaging Centre of Excellence will ensure the ability to recruit, train and retain the highest calibre of staff in diagnostic imaging, clinical physics and related disciplines. It will allow the hospital to provide unprecedented access to advanced diagnostic imaging for patients and greater access to advanced clinical research studies, including major international collaborations. We also anticipate that the co-location of ICE will attract specialist medical conferences to the hospital, and will also facilitate an entrepreneurial culture within the hospital to ensure the development and sustainability of NHS start-up companies.