Caching and Prefetching Images in a Web-Based DICOM Viewer

The general trend of information access anywhere and anytime is also leading to the emergence of innovative medical imaging systems, adapted to this new reality. The HTML5 standard led Web applications to another software level, providing a set of features that allows developing professional Web-based medical imaging applications. However, despite the visualization quality that is already possible in HTML5 browsers, the performance is still an issue, due to the typical size of image studies. In this paper, we present a caching and prefetching solution that enriches the end-user experience in a Web-based DICOM viewer, by reducing data access latency of examinations under revision. We deployed the system in a radiology center for mammography screening, at a national level, and the results show that this technique significantly reduces the average examination access latency, during the reviewing process.