Current Trends in Medical Imaging Acquisition and Communication

A general purpose in biomedical image-processing and image analysis system must dispose of three components which refer to an image acquisition system, a digital computer and image displays tools. Besides these three main aspects an important role is represented by the means of medical image distribution within the medical enterprise. Imaging informatics refers to how medical information images are acquired and distributed within a medical enterprise. Medical imaging in radiology involves a large amount of data that has to be stored and managed throughout the medical system. This paper refers to a medical images archiving and communication system (PACS - picture archiving and communication system) which shares electronic data with other informational systems within the health enterprise. The presented system integrates multimedia technology, hardware platforms, databases, informational system, communication protocols, display technologies and system interfacing and integration. PACS enables radiologist to retrieve, display, store and transmit medical images throughout interfaces that are used to present data to the user via a choice of viewing tools. In using PACS the medical image interpretation may be changed from the conventional hard-copy images to soft-copy studies viewed on the systempsilas workstations.