Seeking Researcher for Multimodal Deep Learning Model (Lumbar Spine MRI + Clinical Data for Osteoporosis Prediction)

Job ID: 39694302

Budget: $750 – $1,500 USD

I am looking for an experienced researcher or data scientist with expertise in deep learning for medical imaging to help analyze my dataset and write the Methods and Results sections for a scientific manuscript.

Project background:

Goal: Develop a multimodal fusion deep learning model combining MRI (T1- and T2-weighted lumbar spine images) with structured clinical data to predict lumbar spine bone mineral density (BMD) or diagnose osteoporosis.

Definition of Osteoporosis: OP is defined as a T-score ≤ −2.5 standard deviations from the young adult mean, measured by DXA.

Dataset:

Patient cohort: Approximately 300 patients, resulting in around 1,000 vertebral segments after excluding segments with compression fractures (each vertebra considered an independent sample).

Imaging: For each lumbar vertebra (L1, L2, L3, L4), we have one T1-weighted sagittal image and one T2-weighted sagittal image.

Labels: Each vertebra has corresponding BMD value and binary osteoporosis classification (yes/no).

Clinical variables:

Demographics: age, sex, body weight, body height

Past medical history: diabetes mellitus, hypertension, dyslipidemia, coronary artery disease (CAD)

Lifestyle factors: smoking history, alcohol intake history

Target model architecture: Similar to published multimodal approaches combining CNN-based imaging features (e.g., EfficientNetB7 or equivalent) with feedforward neural networks for clinical data, using feature concatenation before classification
.

Deliverables:

Data preprocessing, including normalization, augmentation, and patient-level data split.

Model implementation with multimodal fusion (MRI + clinical data).

Training, validation (K-fold or hold-out), and performance evaluation (accuracy, AUC, sensitivity, specificity, F1-score).

Optimization of hyperparameters (e.g., via Optuna or genetic algorithm).

Drafting of the Methods and Results sections of the manuscript, following academic style and including tables/figures.

Requirements:

Proven experience in medical imaging deep learning (preferably MRI) and multimodal model development.

Familiarity with Python, PyTorch or TensorFlow/Keras, and medical image processing (DICOM/NIfTI).

Strong academic writing skills in English.

Ability to produce reproducible code and clear documentation.

If you have relevant publications or prior similar projects, please include them in your proposal.