Recent Announcements

Dear BIC Users,

With the recent switch in University Operations to Research Level 2, and projected step-downs to Levels 1 and Zero, we have reviewed and revised the Covid-19 policies and procedures for BIC. The current policy for Research Level 2 is attached (effective immediately) and we have updated our website and Wiki accordingly.

Please review the update as there are some significant changes to our Training Procedures, Health Screening, Scanning Procedures and Booking Guidelines, which will impact your studies. In particular, we have permission from EHS to permit participants to lower their masks during scanning (providing the documented procedures are followed), and some of the restrictions on prohibited subjects have been partially relaxed to conform with the permitted Tier levels.

We have also implemented some new procedures to improve operations:

1. Our Wiki now features an Alerts and Outages page where you can check on the status of the scanners and ancillary equipment.

( Alerts and Outages - Imaging Research Center - UT Austin Wikis (utexas.edu) ). Status of the Scanners can also be determined via the Status tab in FBS. Please keep us informed of any equipment issues via support@biomedimaging.utexas.edu so we can update this page and start to resolve the issue.

1. Data management: The majority of labs already use a portable hard-drive to export data from the scanner to their local system(s), so going forward we will no longer support the use of DVD’s to export data. To ensure that the data-transfer process is as secure as possible and our systems are protected, we have put together guidelines for portable hard-drive use (Portable Data Drive Recommendations - Imaging Research Center - UT Austin Wikis (utexas.edu) ). Please contact us if you need help setting up or using a portable HD to transfer scans.

BIC will continue to backup and archive a copy of your data. We are also in the process of developing a user-friendly data management system for our scanners that will allow you to access your data remotely and hope to get that online in the next few months.

1. We have added a Covid-19 History Evaluation and Vaccination status form to our pre-screening documents ( Health Screening - Imaging Research Center - UT Austin Wikis (utexas.edu) ). This will allow us to create a repository of Covid-19 related MRI scans that will be available for secondary analysis in the future. Although completing this form is optional, I would encourage you to use it with your participants so we can leverage the BIC community and hopefully gain some insight into the effects of Covid on brain structure and function. If you wish to use this information with your specific research dataset, then you will need to inform the IRB and include a copy of the form in your submission to UTRMS-IRB.

Good luck with your studies in Research Level 2 !!

Doug, Cici and Don