This white paper explores the technical challenges and solutions for acquiring (capturing) and managing enterprise images, particularly those involving visible light applications. The types of acquisition devices used for various general-purpose photography and specialized applications including dermatology, endoscopy, and anatomic pathology are reviewed. The formats and standards used, and the associated metadata requirements and communication protocols for transfer and workflow are considered. Particular emphasis is placed on the importance of metadata capture in both order- and encounter-based workflow. The benefits of using DICOM to provide a standard means of recording and accessing both metadata and image and video data are considered, as is the role of IHE and FHIR.
Structured reporting, created when a standardized template with organized subheadings is combined with relevant observations of a diagnostic study into a meaningful result, has the potential to raise both the quality and the predictability of the radiologist report, revolutionizing the workflow and its outcomes. These templates contain great value, as they carve a path based on best practice for the radiologist to follow, and thus should be shared, reviewed, and improved. Unfortunately, these templates are often not shareable today due to a lack of standards for describing and transporting templates. This paper outlines and discusses an appropriate and effective electronic method for transporting radiology report templates using of the style of representational state transfer (REST). Enabling a structured radiology report template library with REST enables just-in-time accessibility of templates, achieving efficiencies and effectiveness.
There has been much discussion on the topic of lossy image compression within the medical imaging community, with much of the focus on the potential clinical impact and business benefits. The implications of applying irreversible lossy compression to images as it relates to informatics and management is often not considered thoroughly. Why Use Lossy Compression? Common motivations include as follows: & Less storage required-Smaller files mean reduced capital and operational costs. & More data available on-line-If a typical cache and archive storage model is used, smaller files mean more studies on-line and fewer retrievals from the archive. & Faster retrieval-Less data mean faster retrieval from storage (cache and archive). & Less network bandwidth consumed-Smaller files take up less of your "pipe" and get to the destination faster. & Faster display-Smaller files typically consume fewer resources in the viewing application, resulting in faster access and rendering compared to an equivalent lossless compressed image.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.