Architecture for a high-performance tele-ultrasound system

Clinical prototypes of digital tele-ultrasound systems at the Bowman Gray School of Medicine have provided insight into various design architectures. Until network equipment costs decrease, hybrid systems often provide good cost/feature mixes by using high-cost networking equipment only when digital networking is required. Within the hospital using remote ultrasound system, a video and audio router interconnects the video output of ultrasound modalities and technologist communications subsystems. This is done either manually or by remote signaling, depending on the size of the ultrasound infrastructure and the cost of a remote signaling subsystem. For extramural sites and in hospital areas too distant for cost- effective analog switching techniques, an appropriate coder/decoder (CODEC), with echo cancellation, is used to transfer the audio and visual information to a CODEC in the viewing station location. The CODECs can be T1 (1.544 Mbps) CODECs for areas that cannot be reached economically at asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) data rates. This is contingent upon the diagnostic quality of the output of the T1 CODECs. Otherwise, high-speed CODECs are used with 45 Mbps DS-3 or ATM transmission facilities. This system allows full use of existing hospital infrastructures while adapting to emerging data communications infrastructures being implemented.