Medical Picture Base Systems

Various diagnostic techniques in medicine are promarily based on pictorial information. In a hospital up to a million pictures are generated every year and, after evaluation, filed in archives. Present film archives are expensive due to their physical size, and fast and reliable retrieval is impossible. Minification systems are lacking in image quality and ease of use. Novel technologies for information storage (digital optical disc), peripheral devices for picture input and output, and fast digital picture processing lead to decentralized computerized picture information systems, which are the logical complement to hospital data base systems. They will potentially integrate the different types of modern equipment for digital picture generation or processing.