Research And Development On The Data Communication Module Of A TeleMedical Consultation System

As aft advanced tool for the science and technological service, the fast developing information and communication technology will greatly facilitate the development of the global hygiene project. The service of IT and network communication in the hygiene area is a necessity, in which the telemedical system will be deployed as a powerful tool.The project in this paper is funded by the large-and-small-scale enterprise technological innovation foundation of sci-tech type-" PGD-1 telemedical and teleconsultation system", which is undertaken by Gold Disc Multimedia co. ltd, UESTC, Chengdu, cooperating with the School of Life Science and Technology, UESTC.Telemedical systems can be generalized into two modes according to the demanding of the system and technology type: RT(real-time) and non-RT. An ideal telemedical system should possess the two modes simultaneously. On the ground of the basic situation of China, especially the network condition, utilizing the extant traditional public telephone network, the " PGD-1 telemedical and teleconsultation system" explored in our project has developed the non-RT consultation system out of two simple and user-friendly transmission modes. At the same time, nowadays see a fast development of network infrastructure. Thus we have embedded the RT tele-consultation module for the broad-band IP network.According to the analysis for the domestic network situation that the non-RT telecommunication is the main mode adopted in the telemedical network communication, in this system two kinds of technologies have been employed in the non-RT communication: the mail transmission mode and the peer-to-peer transmission mode. In the mail transmission mode, the technology part is treated as the batch processing of the e-mails and the software is accomplished by the specialized control part in the developing tools. In the peer-to-peer transmissioninmode, the user end and the expert end is equal to each other with the utility of MODEM and PSTN. In this system, the ZMODEM ftp is utilized to accomplish the serial communication, which can provide the consultation data communication in comparatively short time.The medical consultation system possesses its own characteristics such as the high quality image demanding, the more emphasis of the patient information than that of the doctor, so the R&D of the RT medical consultation system should have its own features but not completely borrow the frame of the video conference system.Multicast technology enjoys the advantages of reducing the cost of the transmitter, the receiver and the network. Since the characteristics of the multicast are coincide with the medical consultation system, the RT consultation sub-system of this system is developed based on the multicast technology, which owns the features of free participation and quit, the simultaneous control of the information from the doctors and patients, good expansibility and on-the-spot simulation etc. Considering the real time transmission of IP network, the accession of the RTP, RTCP data packet control in the design of the application layer data packet is employed to achieve the better transmission quality. On the basis of the thorough analysis of the consultation dada, the system transmit the diagnostic information of the patients and the consultation information of the doctors separately to improve the quality of the diagnostic information as well as guarantee the transmission of the necessary consultation information.