Geometric Framework linking different levels of the Biological Continuum

Abstract

With the increasing importance of molecular and cellular biology, a new type of medicine, molecular based medicine, is now developing. This will significantly alter the way in which medicine is practiced. Central to these developments is the concept of the Biological Continuum (BC). Medicine today is often practiced at one or two of these levels, i.e. there is generally no vertically integrated approach. In any area of application there will be a wide range of data (both 2-D and 3-D) across the BC. Hence, there is a need to readily access and view the full range of data. In this paper we describe a web-based interface which allows the user to view images and other data, and to navigate seamlessly from one level of the BC to another level (e.g. from Visceral to Tissue). We present a geometric framework to link images from these two levels. The interface was developed using SVG and Javascript. An example case study, which focuses on the knee, is presented MR images of knee at the visceral level and histology images of cartilage at the tissue level. We have shown that with such an interface it is possible to view images from different levels of the BC in a vertically integrated manner.