Enhancing drug development and drug monitoring: academia, industry and government chart common goals.

A workshop was hosted by the Biomedical Imaging Science Initiative of the University of Southern California in January 2007, entitled "Imaging-based Tools: Role in Drug Development and Drug Monitoring". This workshop brought together leaders from the pharmaceutical and the imaging industries, from academia and from government, who worked together to identify technical, educational, financial and procedural roadblocks that have delayed progress in the pharmacokinetic imaging field. The outcome has been a report that identifies future actions, including the formation of a Multidisciplinary Advisory Council on Noninvasive Imaging Studies.