| Digital Imaging Network-Picture Archiving and Communication System (DIN-PACS) has been the cutting edge technology in telemedicine and teleradiology world. It enables sharing and processing of patient data and images in a networked environment. This sharing implies a distributed environment where doctors and other health practitioners do not need to be physically present in the data sources in order to access them. This advantage in itself is a very economical alternative in time and money. Furthermore, digital processing enables doctors and health practitioners to acquire, examine, and even digitally manipulate data (text, images, sound, and videos). A reduced rate of image loss probability and inexpensive and fast image storage further provide attractions to digital imaging network.; Until recent years, however, DIN-PACS technologies are implemented in a localized environment only, e.g., within a single hospital or clinic. The need to share and process these data in a wider area environment (e.g., inter-hospital, city-wide, state-wide, nation-wide, or even world-wide environment), especially in teleradiology discipline, prompted the concept Virtual Radiology Environment (VRE). Virtual Radiology Environment enables the networking of multiple DIN-PACS, which requires an integrated network design configured for both clinicians and radiologist needs. This dissertation presents the design specification and a CORBA-based prototype implementation of such environment. |
