The Cureus Journal of Medical Science is proud to introduce the first Automated Whole Brain Tractography: Clinical Impact in Neurosurgery publishing competition.

The preservation of eloquent brain is foundational to neurosurgery. Over the past decade, Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) has become an important tool for the pre-, intra-, and post-operative visualization of white matter tracts, thereby enabling neurosurgeons to maximally preserve neurologic function. Recent software advances in Automated Whole Brain Tractography (AWBT) now provide a more intuitive and easy-to-use vehicle for visualizing whole brain tractography in surgical patients. This competition looks to showcase practical neurosurgical opportunities stemming from such contemporary software tools.

To document and share clinical experiences related to AWBT, this competition seeks to develop the following neurosurgical-focused publications. Eligible submissions are limited to clinically and commercially available software.

• Case Reports & Case Series describing clinical experiences where AWBT was used in pre-surgical planning and/or intra-operative neuro-navigation. Eligible submissions shall describe the clinical impact of AWBT, including how it impacts surgical decisions, patient outcome, post-operative deficits, length of stay, etc.
• Technical Reports describing but not limited to the following: i) AWBT and its physiological relevance in visualizing functional white matter compared to other conventional technologies for visualizing functional brain regions, such as cortical stimulation mapping, functional MRI, etc.; ii) technical aspects such as workflows associated with AWBT, including the need for optimal DTI protocols, quality control of DTI data, etc.
• Review Articles describing the state of the field in using DTI to visualize white matter tractography. Submissions shall cover: i) differences between AWBT and other processes such as manual, ROI-based seeding methods; ii) a meta-analysis of the clinical impact of DTI in neurosurgery.

Competition results will be shared with the global neurosurgery and neuroradiology communities, with the goal of bringing genuine progress to their patient communities.

The winner of this competition will be determined by general acclaim of the medical community using Cureus Scholarly Impact Quotient™ (SIQ™) crowdsourcing technology. To encourage dissemination and cross-disciplinary awareness, all published materials will be Open Access and indexed with PubMed Central. We encourage you to contribute!

Program administration has been enabled through the financial support of Synaptive Medical. Article selection, editorial review, peer review, publication, and competition winner determination are strictly independent of the sponsor.