Staff
Director, Program for Advanced Musculoskeletal Imaging
Email: [email protected]
Location: Cleveland Clinic Main Campus
Our laboratory’s focus is on exploring and developing advanced musculoskeletal imaging techniques for a range of orthopaedic and rheumatologic disorders. Collaborations originating in my laboratory and in the new Program in Advanced Medical Imaging will establish Cleveland Clinic as a source of advanced translational imaging, with the aim of providing better healthcare to patients with musculoskeletal conditions.
My team’s multidisciplinary research focuses on developing advanced imaging and image processing techniques to improve early diagnosis and treatment for significant musculoskeletal diseases, including osteoarthritis, inflammatory arthritis, sports injury, and osteoporosis.
We develop sophisticated quantitative magnetic resonance (MRI) and magnetic resonance spectroscopic (MRSI) imaging techniques (new pulse sequences, fast imaging with novel reconstruction) and image‑/data‑processing methodologies. These techniques enable us to: 1) detect early cartilage degeneration and inflammation-related abnormalities/lesions; 2) quantify bone shapes; 3) link MRI and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measures with molecular activities in tissues; 4) quantify bone marrow adiposity, and; 5) explore the relationship with bone quantity/quality.
We have also begun performing research in applying machine-learning/deep-learning techniques for novel reconstruction of accelerated MRI acquisition, automatic tissue segmentation and lesion detection, and automatic diagnostic grading and prediction of patient outcomes.
I am also founding director of the collaborative Program in Advanced Medical Imaging (PAMI), with Carl S. Winalski, MD, Diagnostic Radiology, as Clinical Director. PAMI brings together a number of disciplines, within and outside Cleveland Clinic, to advance musculoskeletal imaging for orthopaedics and rheumatology through technology development, translational research, and education. We aim to establish the PAMI center as a robust global resource for musculoskeletal imaging-based research.
Our education and training programs offer hands-on experience at one of the nationʼs top hospitals. Travel, publish in high impact journals and collaborate with investigators to solve real-world biomedical research questions.
Learn MoreTeams of physicians and researchers receive funding to pursue new approaches to solving problems in patient care.
The Osteoarthritis Imaging Center library will house data from clinicians and researchers working on treatments and care, as well as institutions conducting clinical trials.
Dr. Li seeks to identify a faster and more efficient non-invasive method to identify patients at risk for osteoarthritis by improving magnetic resonance imaging techniques.
Even after surgery, patients are at greater risk for post-traumatic osteoarthritis (PTOA).
The gift was established to support advanced imaging programs within Cleveland Clinic’s Musculoskeletal Research Center, with Dr. Li’s research exploring the use of biomedical imaging to diagnose disease and study treatment approaches in osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis