A public image database to support research in computer aided diagnosis.

The Public Lung Database to address drug response (PLD) has been developed to support research in computer aided diagnosis (CAD). Originally established for applications involving the characterization of pulmonary nodules, the PLD has been augmented to provide initial datasets for CAD research of other diseases. In general, the best performance for a CAD system is achieved when it is trained with a large amount of well documented data. Such training databases are very expensive to create and their lack of general availability limits the targets that can be considered for CAD applications and hampers development of the CAD field. The approach taken with the PLD has been to make available small datasets together with both manual and automated documentation. Furthermore, datasets with special properties are provided either to span the range of task complexity or to provide small change repeat images for direct calibration and evaluation of CAD systems. This resource offers a starting point for other research groups wishing to pursue CAD research in new directions. It also provides an on-line reference for better defining the issues relating to specific CAD tasks.