Standardization of Containerized “MRD Apps” for Reproducible and Deployable Research

Reproducibility and translation of advancements in MR image reconstruction and analysis algorithms have been limited by incompatibilities between heterogeneous software environments. Containerization of “MRD Apps” packages software together with all dependent libraries into a single ready-to-use container. Standardization of the container format enables broad inter-compatibility and source code examples are provided for Python, MATLAB, and C++ through Gadgetron. A neural network was implemented in the MRD Apps format using Python and run directly on the scanner with vendor-provided integration. MRD Apps can be published alongside manuscripts as reference implementations or used to streamline image reconstruction and analysis challenge contests.