ALBA: Agile library for biomedical applications

Efficient and unified software tools to manage the complex imaging and modelling workflows needed for computational biomechanics research are lacking. The Agile Library for Biomedical Applications (ALBA) is an open-source C++ versatile framework that handles various data types (e.g. 2D and 3D images, surfaces, finite element models, point clouds, motion analysis data), and offers an easily extensible platform for the rapid development of specialised applications that can manage, visualise, and manipulate biomedical data. The already available functionalities have been developed in the context of computational biomechanics, quantitative image analysis and pre-operative planning in orthopaedics. Software applications built with ALBA attracted the interest of the scientific community and are currently used, both inside and outside the original research group, in finite element modelling of bones and musculoskeletal modelling. The further ALBA adoption by other centres might increase the spread of a positive attitude towards open and reproducible research in the biomechanical community and increase the sharing of algorithms and data.