WEB Platform to Support the Share and Remote Access to Medical Images

The production of digital medical images has been growing in every healthcare institution, representing nowadays one the most valuable tools supporting the medical decision process and treatment procedures. One of the most important advantages of these digital systems is to simplify the widespread sharing and remote access of medical data between healthcare institutions. However, due to security and performance issues, the usage of these software packages has been restricted to Intranets. In general, the storage and transmission of digital medical image is based on the international DICOM standard and PACS systems. This paper analyses the traditional PACS communication limitations that contribute to their reduced usage in the Internet. It is also proposed an architecture, based on Webservices and encapsulation of DICOM objects in HTTP, to enable trans-institutional medical data transfers.