Kyle J. Myers: The 2024 SPIE Harrison H. Barrett Award in Medical Imaging
Kyle J. Myers, former director of the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) division of Imaging, Diagnostics, and Software Reliability, has had a critical leadership role in translating discoveries in image science into regulatory practice through the device-approval process for more than 30 years. Early on, she made her mark with her dissertation work. This work had a profound impact on the field of task-based, image-quality assessment — in its infancy at that time — analyzing the effect of correlated noise on observer performance, and introducing the concept of visual channels to models of observer performance as a way to address the problem. This approach is the predominant way to implement anthropomorphic human-observer models and remains an active area of research area today. Her 2004 book coauthored with Harrison H. Barrett, Foundations of Image Science, which won the Joseph W. Goodman Book Writing Award, remains a key text in the medical imaging field in terms of articulating the scope of the field, while being modern enough to apply to today’s work with deep neural networks. A paper she co-authored in 2018 demonstrated that the findings of large observational studies in breast-cancer screening, comparing full-field digital mammography to digital breast tomosynthesis, could be replicated using state-of-the-art methods from the emerging field of virtual clinical trials. The main finding serves as strong support for the use of virtual trials for demonstrating the validity of imaging methods for regulatory purposes as well as more generally in academia and industry. In addition, Myers made substantive contributions to image display (X-ray phosphor interactions); multi-reader/multi-case reader performance studies (components of variance estimation); imaging biomarkers, particularly for lung cancer; and task-based assessments of MRI. While Myers retired from the FDA in 2021, she is still active in the imaging field through her consulting work, involvement on various advisory boards, and her leadership role at the Medical Imaging and Data Resource Center (MIDRC).
An SPIE Fellow, Myers has been a mainstay of SPIE Medical Imaging as both a participant and organizer. Since 1985, she has authored or co-authored more than 80 proceedings papers. She has given keynote presentations, run conference workshops, organized special sessions, served on conference program committees, and served as a conference co-chair. In 2022, she was the organizer and chair for a special session marking the 50th anniversary of SPIE Medical Imaging. Among other Society roles, Myers sits on the editorial board of the Journal of Medical Imaging; has served on the SPIE Strategic Planning Committee; has chaired the SPIE Harrison H. Barrett Award in Medical Imaging and SPIE Awards Program committees; and has served on the SPIE Board of Directors since 2018.
“Dr. Myers is an excellent and innovative scientist who has had a tremendous impact on the field of medical imaging throughout her career,” notes SPIE Fellow and Siemens Healthineers’ Advanced Therapies Head of Innovation Rebecca Fahrig. “She has been a fantastic role model for women in medical physics and has continued to provide thought leadership through SPIE and other organizations even after retiring from the FDA. Although regulatory work is not, in general, considered to be exciting, Dr. Myers made it so by providing new opportunities for open innovation in metrology and by seeking new approaches to efficiently assess and evaluate the broad spectrum of rapidly evolving technologies in medical imaging. Her embrace of innovation in regulatory processes, combined with a deep understanding of the technical solutions, clear-sighted balancing of risk-benefit ratios and creation of consensus approaches, has vastly enabled practical solutions for bringing new technologies to the market safely.”
Meet the other 2024 SPIE Society Award recipients.
Read more about Kyle J. Myers and the SPIE Harrison H. Barrett Award in Medical Imaging.
