International photoacoustic standardisation consortium (IPASC): image quality characteristics and phantom test methodology

IPASC aims to develop standardized performance test methods for evaluating photoacoustic imaging devices. Members were surveyed to assess importance of several image quality characteristics (IQCs). The highest ranked IQCs were in-plane resolution, visualization depth, and acoustic signal quality, while the lowest relative ranked were acquisition speed, elevational resolution, and contrast-detail analysis. Disparity was noted between IQC importance and frequency of measurement, possibly due to limited resources, low IQC prioritization, or lack of available test methods. A final IQC set has been selected for test method development and will result in recommended phantom designs, data acquisition protocols, and image analysis techniques.