J Korean Soc Med Inform.  1996 Jun;2(1):87-97.

Design of a Teleradiology System

• Kim SH
• Yoo SK
• Kim YG
• Park SU
• Kim SR
• Kim NH

Abstract

In clinical surgery, there are frequent needs for communication between the house staff and the attending physician in an emergency situation. It's often insufficient for the house staff to make a decision through the information which is delivered in the form of only voice through the telephone line. To overcome the limitation of voice communication, we have designed an emergency teleradiology system which can be used for emergency surgical and medical decision making. The system can transmit the high quality images of CT, MRI, and other X-ray data using a PC attached to a modem through the conventional telephone line. Progressive transmission adopted in the system enables us to efficiently utilize the band-width of telephone line which is typically very low. The iterative residual coding/decoding algorithm compresses various medical images effectively, and thus fast-transmission of images date helps the house staff to perceive the status of emergent patient and make a fast and correct decision about the patient. The system also satisfies design requirements such as low-cost, ease of operation and interactive image communication including voice. 'Teleradiology system' proposed in this paper has been installed and operated in the emergency care unit of Severance Hospital, and as a result, it is effective in the emergency situations.

Keyword

emergency teleradiology system; progressive transmission; interactive residual coding algorithm; medical image transmission

MeSH Terms

Decision Making
Emergencies
Emergency Medical Services
Humans
Internship and Residency
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Modems
Telephone
Teleradiology*
Voice