The aim of PMOD's basic application courses is to teach the participants the effective use of the major PMOD tools. Brief presentations will outline the principles behind the different types of data analysis. They will be complemented by live demonstrations. Sufficient time will be available for individual practice based on a workbook and for interacting with the trainers.

The participants are required to bring their own notebooks. Each participant will be given a USB flash key with the latest PMOD version as well as training data sets. PMOD can be started directly from the key, such that the configuration of the notebook will remain untouched. As a courtesy, the key can be taken home and will work for another two months. This will give the participants the opportunity to complete their studies if needed, and to try the PMOD tools on their own data.

Upon completion of the training the participants will be able to:

• Exploit the wealth of image presentations and layouts,
• Apply the filtering and image processing tools,
• Define Volumes-of-Interest (VOIs) using manual and automatic methods and calculate their statistics,
• Calculate time-activity curves and submit them to the kinetic modeling tool,
• Understand the different types of models and apply them in the general and pixel-wise modeling tool,
• Match images of a single patient by manual and automatic methods,
• Spatially normalize a brain image to a brain atlas,
• Select among the available image fusion techniques,
• Perform pixel-wise algebra with matched series, eg. to calculate a perfusion reserve,
• Apply segmentation techniques to extract organ surfaces and render them in 3D,
• Project functional information as a texture onto an organ surface.
  
  

The course is aimed at participants with a basic to intermediate skill level. It is primarily designed for existing and prospective PMOD users who started using PMOD recently and wish to extend their knowledge and interact with the authors of the software. The participants will also have the opportunity to evaluate modules which are not available in their acquired installations. Participants eager to have an advance taste of the software are invited to request via the PMOD website a two-months trial license and do some practices with the example data provided.