Creating a digital video-based teaching file for interventional procedures using CT fluoroscopy

Abstract

A computerized radiology education teaching file application, MRW (Multimedia Radiology Workstation), was produced in our department as a collaboration of faculty, fellows and a doctoral student. This inexpensive and flexible system is novice-programmable and is capable of capturing images from multiple modalities (including still and cine image) and organizing them into individual electronic teaching cases. Help and tutorial functions support the main case display functions. Copyright © 1998 by W.S. Saunders CompanyA N INNOVATIVEthird-generation CT scanner (Xpress SX, Toshiba Corp., Tokyo, Japan) currently in use at the University of Maryland, Department of Radiology permits near real-time reconstruction of CT Fluoroscopy (CTF) to aid in the performance of interventional procedures. We have created MRW (Multimedia Radiology Workstation) to be capable of using a variety of imaging resources, including CTF, as an alternative to standard teaching file methods. MRW consists of three components: a search engine, a case library and a media file collection. The search engine allows case selection by organ systemlbody region, modality and pathology. The case library consists of a hard disk directory containing individual case projects. Supporting data (diagnostic, patient history and modality information) can be added for each case. The media file collection consists of a directory containing digitized imaging media files obtained from CT, CT fluoroscopy, MRI, US, plain film, and nuclear medicine. Thus, MRW is a database application containing potentially hundreds of unique cross-indexed cases designed to allow efficient access/viewing in an intuitive, userfriendly manner.We have drawn on the radiology literature and five years of multimedia creation experience to make MRW. Since the initialleaming task involved