Biomedical imaging research increasingly involves acquir ing, managing and processing large amounts of distributed imaging data. Integrated systems that combine data, me ta data and workflows are crucial for realising the oppor tunities presented by advances in imaging facilities. Clin ical informatics systems such as clinical picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) are commonplace, but their design, specifically for clinical settings, precludes ef fective use in a research environment. In this project, we design, implement and operate a multi modality research imaging data management system that manages imaging data obtained from biomedical imaging scanners operated at Monash Biomedical Imaging (MBI), Monash University in Melbourne. In addition to Digital Imaging and Communi cations in Medicine (DICOM) images, raw data and non DI COM biomedical data can be archived and distributed by the system. All data are stored in the Monash petascale Large Research Data Storage (LaRDS) system that provides the networked, high performance storage and backup sys tem. The research imaging data management system en sures long term usability, integrity inter operability and integration of large imaging data. Research users can se curely browse and download stored images and data, and upload processed data via subject oriented informatics frameworks including the Distributed and Reflective Infor matics System (DaRIS), and the Extensible Neuroimaging Archive Toolkit (XNAT).

DaRIS, a subject oriented informatics framework and capa bility developed primarily at the University of Melbourne, is the main informatics platform supported at MBI. DaRIS is built on the top of Mediaflux (Architecta Pty Ltd, Mel bourne, Australia), a commercial media asset manage ment system, and is specifically designed for medical im aging data. DaRIS uses a service oriented architecture for the management of data. At MBI, we have developed a domain specific package to deliver a MBI context using PSSD framework. In brief, the PSSD data model hierarchy is: project, subject, study, data. Each objects in the model has an independent citable identifier that allows this ob ject to be referenced in a distributed environments. The MBI package contains document types, dictionaries, meth ods, study types, roles and services that are designed for imaging studies at MBI and Monash Clinical and Imaging Neuroscience laboratory.