What is computer infrastructure (MIII) in PACS systems?

The medical imaging computer infrastructure (MIII) is an organized method for selecting tools and synthesizing data from HIS, RIS, PACS and ePR systems with the objective of developing an image-based diagnosis or treatment system. All of this is part of the discipline known as medical informatics.

La medical imaging computer infrastructure (MIII) It's a Server designed to take advantage of resources PACS existing images and related data.

MIII It has applications in large scale horizontal and longitudinal education, research and clinical services.

MIII is the ideal vehicle to facilitate this use of PEACE, in addition to your daily clinical service. Below we will learn more about its functionalities.

Architecture and components of a MIII system

An MIII system comprises the following components:

1. Medical images and associated data (including the PACS database).
2. Tools for image processing.
3. Visualization, graphical user interface.
4. Communication networks.
5. Database management and application-oriented software.

PACS and related data

La data source in the MIII It consists of the database PACS and other databases related to the health information system that contain:

• Patient demographics.
• Case histories.
• Medical imaging.
• The corresponding diagnostic reports.
• The results of laboratory tests.

All of this data is organized and archived according to standardized protocols and data formats, such as DICOM for images and HL7 for text.

In addition, you can use a controlled health vocabulary as a standard for medical identifiers, codes and messages proposed by the American Medical Informatics Association.

Image processing

The software of pImage processing allows you to configure the mechanism for indexing and retrieving image content. Its functions include segmentation, determination of the region of interest, texture analysis, content analysis, morphological operations, image registration and image matching.

These can be done automatically or interactively using an inbound gateway or a server of the PACS system. The result of image processing can be a new image or description of some features.

The data extracted by the image processing functions can be added to the MIII system image data file.

Database and knowledge management

The database and knowledge base management component software has several functions:

1. Integrate and organize PACS images together with all related data, it extracts image characteristics, keywords from image processing, derives rules and guidelines of medical heuristics in a coherent multimedia data model.
   
2. Admit the database management online, content-based indexing, retrieval, formatting, distribution for viewing and manipulation.
   
3. Data extraction tools. With the knowledge base as a guide, they can be used as a method to extract relevant information from databases.

Visualization and graphical user

The interface visualization and the graphical user interface are output components. Both components are related to the design of the workstation.

Visualization includes 3D rendering, merging image data, and visualizing static and dynamic images. It will also use data extracted from image processing (i.e., segmentation, enhancement and shading) for output representation.

The visualization can be done in a standard workstation (WS) or with high-performance graphics engines. For a low performance workstation, the final visualization can be pre-calculated and packaged in the WS; whereas with high-performance graphics engines, the rendering can be in real time in the WS.

Communication networks

Communication networks include network hardware and communication protocols necessary to connect MIII components with each other, as well as with the system PACS.

The communication network MIII can have two architectures:

• To have a own network with a connection to PACS networks. This must be transparent to users and provide the necessary high-speed performance so that MIII request PACS images and related data, distributing the results to user workstations.
  
• It can sharing communication networks with the PACS. Here the MIII must have a logical segment isolated from the PACS networks so that it does not interfere with the daily clinical functions of the PACS.

Security and system integration

Once the images have been processed in the PACS system, some validation mechanisms to ensure their integrity and accuracy. When these components are implemented in the MIII, application-oriented software can be designed and developed to integrate the components necessary for a specific clinical, research or educational application.

La system integration includes the system interface, shared data, and workspace software.

El interface software of the system uses existing communication protocols and networks to connect all components of the infrastructure into an integrated image information system.

El workspace and shared data software allocates and distributes resources, including data, storage space, and workstation to online users.

PACS-based medical imaging information

Initially, the systems PACS originated as an image management system for improve the efficiency of radiological practice. This has Evolved so much so that it becomes an integrated system in the hospital that deals with information media in many forms, including: voice, text, medical records, waveform images and video recordings.

For Integrate In these various types of information, multimedia technology is required, which includes: hardware platforms, information systems and databases, communication protocols, visualization and interconnection technology and system integration.

As a PACS grows in size and functionality, so does the content of its database. The wealth of information within the PACS provides the opportunity for a completely new approach to medical research and practice across the discipline of medical informatics.

Here are some MIII resources as an illustration of their connectivity and utilization.

Some of the Resources that uses the PACS-based medical imaging infrastructure (MIII) are:

Content based on indexed images

PACS systems use a improved database in MIII What does it contain the keywords of diagnostic reports, patient history and image sequences, as well as certain image characteristics for content-based indexing of underlying images of modalities in the PACS database.

The use of a artificial indexing such as the patient's name, identification, age group, category of the disease, etc., using the one-dimensional keyword search it's a fairly simple procedure.

On the other hand, the indexing through the content of the image is complicated, because the query first has to understand the content of the image, which can include abstract terms (for example, regions of interest), derived quantitative data (for example, area and volume of the object of interest) and texture information (for example, interstitial disease).

Three-dimensional representation and visualization

The representation of 3D PACS is designed as a data management system. It lacks the computing power for image content analysis on the image workstation or the PACS controller.

For this reason, it is necessary to allocate computing resources and 3-D representation in the MIII infrastructure to high-performance calculations in case MIII workstations request such a task.

Once a given 3D calculation is completed, the results can be distributed with visualization capability to other image workstations over high-speed networks.

Distributed Computing

The basic idea of distributed computing is that if several computers are connected to a network, the workload can be divided into smaller parts so that each computer works faster and the total time decreases.

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References

• PACS and imaging informatics. Basic Principles And Applications. H.K. Huang, D.Sc., FRCR (Hon.) 2004.
• Medical Imaging Informatics. Radiology Key.