ABSTRACT
One of the important applications of the Monte Carlo methods discussed in this book is to simulate realistic images from imaging systems which already exist or new designs for systems/collimators one is prototyping prior to construction. Once you have these images, and possibly used them to create derived images (reconstructions with perhaps some form of correction), then likely the next thing you will want to do is to evaluate their image quality in some manner. There are a number of possible metrics one can use for an evaluation (see pp. 914-922 of [1]). However, since medical images are acquired for a purpose, it has been argued that the most meaningful measure of the quality of an image would be how useful it is while performing tasks that closely approximate those for which it would be employed clinically [1,2]. The goals of this chapter are to review the elements of task-based assessment of image quality, and to provide some practical advice on performing the evaluations for investigators employing Monte Carlo simulation of imaging systems.
