Development of a medical image capture, formatting, and display system in support of a medical diagnostic center

Abstract

Today's concern over rising medical costs demands that medical diagnostic systems have cost effective life cycles. The design of a Medical Image Capture, Formatting, and Display (MICFD) system must be based on an architectural approach utilizing new technologies for upgrades and modifications. The need to maintain a cost effective operation dictates flexible, easily upgradeable architectures. In the past, Image Capture, Formatting, and Display capabilities have been contained within a single medical diagnostic system and embodied an architectural approach that limited significant performance upgrades due to tight coupling between software and a specific vendor's hardware. Significant capability enhancements to these systems could in the past only be accomplished by replacement of the entire system. The MICFD system described in this paper was specifically tailored to meet the needs of a Medical Diagnostic Center to monitor and analyze a diagnostic procedure through the use of state-of- the-art image capture, formatting, and display technologies. Further, the architecture is such that incremental enhancements can be made to strengthen budget profiles. A review of the requirements for a MICFD system that will support multiple diagnostic systems and provide a method for minimizing life cycle cost is presented in this paper. To fulfill these requirements, SPARTAC (SPArta Real Time Analysis, Computation and Control Center) architecture and design concepts have been used.