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National Medical Phantom Library (NMPL)

A photo of a 3D plastic model of a human heart

As part of the NIBIB BETA Center, the National Medical Phantom Library (NMPL) serves as a resource for the community to borrow medical imaging phantoms and/or disseminate their existing phantoms through the NMPL.

Medical imaging plays an important role in screening, diagnosis, characterization, and treatment of diseases and therapy response monitoring.  Phantoms are specialized objects that mimic human anatomy or tissue properties and play a crucial role in multiple stages of medical device and imaging technology development. High-quality and reproducible phantoms can enhance quantitative characterization of imaging system performance under different operating parameters. These phantoms may also assist in quality assurance and control during technical development of biomedical imaging systems and methodologies. 

NMPL is a joint effort between NIBIB, NIST, and FDA that creates centralized access to imaging phantoms. NMPL aims to broaden phantom development and dissemination and reduce the need for ad-hoc test method generation, which remains a burden for innovators. 

NMPL consists of two sites: NMPL NIST, which primarily houses MRI phantoms, and NMPL NIBIB, which will include other imaging modalities such as optical and ultrasound imaging phantoms. To learn more about the NMPL NIST site please go to NIST/NIBIB Medical Imaging Phantom Lending Library | NIST.

For all inquiries, including requesting a loan and sharing phantoms please contact nationalmedicalphantomlibrary@nih.gov