Reducing the Burden on Military Tactical Networks by Lowering the Impact of Digital Medical Image Transmissions

Imaging compression techniques are based on either lossy or lossless algorithms. Lossy techniques attempt to eliminate redundant or unnecessary information contained within the image. Although these techniques can significantly reduce digital files sizes at compression rates exceeding 100:1, there is an associated data loss. In certain applications the data loss is acceptable, since the decompression of the files result in images that are visually lossless. However, with medical image compression there is a concern that such data loss will obscure clinically relevant regions of the original image. Research has been conducted on a hybrid application of lossless compression on regions of diagnostic interest while applying lossy methods on other regions of the image. We believe applying our registration capabilities will overcome limitation in storage and transmission of medical images produced today.