The introduction of digital imaging technology to the mammography field opens a range of capabilities to the clinical environment, including the transmission of images between clinical sites. Through the use of state- of-the-art compression, storage, and network technologies to capture, archive, and transmit data, even the small clinics scattered across the country will have access to the world's best radiological tools and evaluations. GE proposes to develop a telemammography system consisting of three elements (image management, compression algorithms, and transmission techniques) that will be guided by these qualities: * Practical - can be scaled to each application's budget and needs * Compatible - works with and interfaces to existing site capabilities (H/W, S/W, and Info. Systems) * Modular - is extendable to meet diverse users' requirements * Distributed - can expand to accommodate multiple users and to coordinate image access * Progressive - advances with technology (state-of-the-art) The three elements of the proposed system are the following: * Image Management. GE will develop and validate an object-oriented software architecture for image management that will be compatible with the diversity of existing computation, storage, and transmission equipment available at clinical sites. This standards-based architecture will be modular and progressive, allowing the user to define new capabilities as required and ensuring that the system can leverage emerging hardware and network standards (such as ISDN). * Compression Algorithms. GE will develop progressive information- preserving compression algorithms that provide the data retention capability of the lossless techniques while maintaining the capability of large compression ratios available in common lossy techniques. This approach will allow the radiologists to select the level of detail required while providing robustness of data so that valuable information is retained during transmission. * Transmission Techniques. GE will validate the performance characteristics of the image management system utilizing various emerging transmission technologies. The plan is to use the Research & Development Center's existing Local Area and Wide Area Network (LAN/WAN) testbed in conjunction with a WAN link to Mass. General Hospital (clinical site) and Univ. of Chicago (CAD enhancement) to demonstrate that a distributed network of remotely located sites can receive and transmit mammographic images effectively. The complete system provides a practical approach that the National Digital Mammography Development Group can offer remote clinical sites. GE will leverage extensive experience in aerospace and medical communication technologies, as well as prior work in the development of a digital data transmission tool for medical purposes.
