The digital radiology environment

The problems of implementing a digital radiology environment are addressed, focusing on the role of communications. Because the digital radiology environment is essentially a medical image multimedia system, the medical information industry could take advantage of recent advances in managing multimedia systems that deal with applications, such as prepress formatting and CAE/CAD/CAM. The paper describes the experience of the Bowman Gray School of Medicine of Wake Forest University relative to the digital radiology environment. Next, impediments to the implementation of a digital radiology environment are presented. Suggestions to the ACR/NEMA Digital Imaging and Communications (DICOM) Standard, a standard being jointly developed by the American College of Radiology (ACR) and the National Electronics Manufacturing Association (NEMA), are examined, and suggestions for its use in the digital radiology environment are given. A digital radiology environment architecture is proposed.>