Medical images are an important component of the medical record generated during a patient's hospital stay or clinic visit. The NIH Clinical Center (CC), like most university and research hospitals, is attempting to solve the problem of consolidating medical images with the conventional alphanumeric medical record data in the Medical Information System (MIS) to more completely realize the goal of a comprehensive electronic medical record. DCRT, CC, and NCI are collaborating to develop a series of demonstration projects that explore image integration into the electronic medical record. Chest X-rays are routinely obtained within the Diagnostic Radiology Department. In this application, we have been using a Vision Ten Rita! system, which contains a gray-scale sheet film digitizer, as an integral part of an image gateway. Communication of medical images between the Radiology Department's Film Library and remote sites is now possible. Future plans include the connection of two General Electric CT scanners into the Vision Ten image transmission and display environment. In addition, we are planning a prototype high-speed image communication network based on Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) Switch technology. The ATM Switch will allow 155 Mbit/sec multi-media communications between users. This prototype network would initially support high-performance radiation therapy planning, which is a collaborative effort between DCRT's Computational Bioscience and Engineering Laboratory (CBEL) and the NCI Radiation Oncology Branch (ROB). CBEL's Intel iPSC/860 Supercomputer will be utilized to apply the power of parallel computing methods to the computationally intensive calculations required for radiation therapy planning. A custom-designed Radiology Consultation WorkStation (RCWS) will be located in the NCI Radiation oncology Branch (ROB), as well as in the same building as the CBEL Supercomputer.
| Anchordoquy, T J; Molina, M dC; Kempner, E S (2009) A radiation target method for size determination of supercoiled plasmid DNA. Anal Biochem 385:229-33 |
