J. Fernàndez-Bayó, O. Barbero, C. Rubies, M. Sentís.
Image Laboratory, SDI-UDIAT.
Corporació Sanitària Parc Taulí, Sabadell, Spain
Digital medical images are very commonly used in nowadays hospitals, even in other than radiolgy departments. Considering the interrelations presently existing between the radiology department and other departments especially ICU and emergency unit, the transmission of the medical images has become an essential issue. We present a new approach to improve and simplify this interrelation.
We have developed an Internet system that allows us to query and get information stored in a DICOM database. Using a Web browser the user can ask for the list of patients that he is interested in, using several selection criteria. Then the Web server will query a DICOM database and get the list of patients in an HTML page that will be sent back to the user Web browser. The user can select any of the presented patients, one after another DICOM query process performed by the Web server, a list of studies that belong to the selected patient will be displayed in the Web browser. Afterwards, the user only needs to select one of the studies and the images are retrieved from the DICOM database and displayed in the Web browser with the help of a DICOM Java viewer.
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This system presents several advantages in comparison with more traditional PACS systems: Since it is based on a client-server Intranet system where the client only needs to have a Web browser, the system is easy to install and to maintain. From a client point of view the system is based on a well-known Web browser user interface, therefore it is very easy to use. Additionally, the system is based on multiplatform Intranet technologies like Java, thus it can be used from any hospital department independently from the kind of computer they have. Another advantage, is that with a security policy, the same system can be easily used from outside the hospital.
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In order to display the images inside the Web browser, we use our DICOM Java viewer with the following features: It can display any kind of DICOM image including indexed or true color images obtained in Ultrasounds or Nuclear Medicine. The viewer allows to change the windowlevel of MR and CT true 12 or 16 bits depth grayscale images. Other image manipulation like zooming or rotations are also available. The images can be viewed in stack or tile mode with 4, 9 or 16 images displayed altogether. The viewer allows to sort the images in different stacks according to the sequences they belong. Those stacks can be synchronized and visualized altogether for comparison purpose. The synchronization can be set according to the slide position or can be user defined. For ultrasound and cardiology images ‘cine’ mode is available. In order to increase the speed of the viewer multithread techniques are also used.
This system is almost as fast as other PACS systems. For hospital departments outside the radiology department, like the intensive care unit, the system is already fast.
Corresponding author:
J. Fernàndez-Bayó, O. Barbero, C. Rubies, M. Sentís.
Image Laboratory
SDI-UDIAT. Corporació Sanitària Parc Taulí.
Parc Taulí s/n
Sabadell 08208
Spain
Oral presentation at EuroPACS'98, Barcelona, Spain
Oral presentation at EuroPACS'98, Barcelona, Spain
