General conditions

The OsiriX Plugin Award is intended to encourage the development of image processing and image analysis tools as plugins that can extend the features of the Open Source OsiriX platform. It is intended to promote and extend the use of OsiriX and its plugins in clinical institutions and medical research. Plugins could be developed for image processing, image enhancement, segmentation, visualization and image navigation, as well as specific quantitative analysis and data extraction that are applicable for specific clinical applications or research support.

A list of proposed projects is provided and updated regularly allowing candidates to choose from, but other tools not listed in the proposed list could also be submitted to the committee for approval. Two categories of projects are awarded:

  • Category 1 For small general purpose tools or simple enhancement extensions that can be applicable to more than one purpose. These plugins should be simple and not complex to be developed in a 3 months timeframe. The award for category 1 is: 2000 CHF
  • Category 2 For more specific clinical tools intended for advanced image analysis and extraction of quantitative information. These plugins should be focused on a specific clinical or research objective and should be developed in a 6 months timeframe. The award for category 2 is: 5000 CHF

Eligibility and deadlines

Students and young scientists as well as interns and physicians in training are eligible for the plugin award. They must be enrolled in an academic institution, university, college or technical school and a proof of affiliation must be provided by the applicant to apply for a project. Applications can be submitted at any time with no specific deadline. Applicants should submit a two-page maximum description of their project. Interviews and discussions with the OsiriX team prior to submission is highly recommended allowing applicant to discuss their project and ensure its feasibility and adequacy and avoid unexpected rejection of the project. An ad-hoc scientific review committee will review all applications and may request additional information or details. Rejected project will have a short evaluation summary with description of the rejection criteria. Candidates can choose to resubmit a revised project based on the first evaluation by the committee.

After approval of the project the candidates will have to sign a written commitment for delivery of the final product for evaluation (three months for category 1 and 6 months for category 2). Failure to turn in a working version of the plugin in time will void the eligibility for later evaluation, and candidates will not be allowed to resubmit other proposals on the same topic. A project that is being assigned to a candidate becomes unavailable to other candidates during the period allocated for its development. If the candidate fails to deliver the product in time, the project will be made available again to other participants.

Projects submitted must be original and prospective. Plugins that have already been developed or published prior to submission of the proposal are not eligible for the contest.

Authors should be willing to distribute the result of their work as open source material. Plugins intended for commercial distribution are not eligible.

The scientific committee will review the final product and decide wether it deserves the award based on different criteria (a specific score will be assigned to each criteria with a minimal threshold that will be defined for awarding the prize). The following criteria will be scored:

  • Ability of the tool to achieve the goal described in the original proposal
  • Robustness of the plugin-delivered and its immunity to crashes and bugs when tested on different sets of data
  • Code optimization
  • Easy of use and user-interface design
  • Compliance with OsiriX code architecture and plugin standard interface
  • Code documentation and user manual

Projects that will not meet the required score will no receive the final price. Candidates will receive a summary of the comments of the review committee, but will not have access to the score or have any recourse for discussing the decision with the jury. Decision of the jury is final and cannot be challenged.

Laureates will receive their award at an award-ceremony held by the OsiriX Foundation once a year. More than one project can be awarded in each category each year. Recipient that cannot come to the award ceremony will receive their award by mail.

Candidates that have been awarded a prize in one category are not eligible for a second project in the same category. They will be allowed to submit a project in another category as long as the topic is accepted by the scientific committee as being sufficiently different from the first project that was awarded.

Intellectual property

  • Authors of plugins will retain full authorship rights and freedom to further publish their work or present their tools in scientific conferences and meetings.
  • The plugin and its source code will have to be released under Open Source license.
  • OsiriX Foundation will retain the right to distribute the plugin and use it as promotional and advertisement for the promotion of the Foundation and fund-raising events.
  • Members of the Foundation will not publish papers or scientific communications based on the plugin without the written consent of the authors and after a formal proposal to be a co-author of the publication.
  • Any request for commercial distribution of derivative work or financial contracts that are submitted to the Foundation will be forwarded to the original author.

Proposed Projects

Category 1

Category 2