DIGITIZATION & ARCHIVING OF MEDICAL IMAGES

IT IS PROPOSED TO ESTABLISH THE TECHNICAL MERIT AND FEASIBILITY OF AN INNOVATIVE, VERY HIGH SPEED DIGITAL IMAGE ACQUISITION SYSTEM DESIGN. THE SYSTEM CONCEPT INCORPORATES CHARGE COUPLED DEVICE (CCD) ELECTRONIC LIGHT DETECTORS, WHICH ARE OPTICALLY MULTIPLEXED TO PRODUCE A LARGE FORMAT, HIGH RESOLUTION TWO-DIMENSIONAL DIGITAL CAMERA. THE ZERO GAP DETECTOR MOSAIC IN THE CAMERA CAN BE CONSTRUCTED TO BE ALMOST ARBITRARILY LARGE. A SUITABLY ILLUMINATED MEDICAL IMAGE (E.G. CHEST RADIOGRAPH, PATIENT FILM JACKET, ETC.) CAN THEREFORE BE RECORDED AND STORED IN DIGITAL FORMAT WITHOUT ANY MECHANICAL SCANNING MOTION WHATSOEVER. A 2000 X 2000 ELEMENT PICTURE (THE RESOLUTION REQUIRED FOR A CHEST RADIOGRAPH) CAN BE DIGITIZED IN ONLY ABOUT 1 SECOND. THIS IS APPROXIMATELY 60 TIMES FASTER THAN OTHER PROPOSED DATA INPUT DEVICES. THIS DIGITAL CAMERA THUSLENDS ITSELF TO HIGH VOLUME APPLICATIONS, SUCH AS THOSE CONNECTED WITH ENVISIONED DIGITAL PICTURE ARCHIVING AND COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM (PACS). THE PROPOSED SYSTEM UTILIZES SPECIALIZED BIT SLICE PROCESSORS TO PERFORM ON-LINE COMPRESSION OF THE HIGH SPEED DATA STREAM EMANATING FROM THE DETECTORS, THEREBY FACILITATING THE STORAGE OF THE IMAGE. SEVERAL AUTHORS HAVE DISCUSSED THE NEED FOR SUCH SYSTEMS, AND HAVE PREDICTED THAT AN AVERAGE 600 BED HOSPITALWILL UTILIZE CAMERAS, OPERATING 24 HOURS A DAY, TO DIGITIZE THE 5,500 MEGABYTES OF ANALOG DATA COLLECTED BY SUCH AN INSTITUTION EACH DAY. CLEARLY, THEREFORE, THE COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL OF THE PLANNED DEVICE IS LARGE.