<title>High-performance medical image communications via ACTS-HDR</title>

Abstract

Unique advantages of satellite communication over fiber-optic communication include on-demand linkage and easy access to remote or mobile sites. These advantages are particularly important in life-critical medical services of teleracliology, distributed treatment planning and medical triage support applications. This paper reports on experiments designed to use the supercomputer power, 3D volumetric modeling technology, and NASA ACTS (Advanced Communication Technology Satellite) Ka-band communication to validate the suite of deployable digital radiography technologies for image-based medical triage as well as remote cooperative delivery of health care. The success of the experiments will demonstrate that high speed (giga-bit) satellite communication (particularly, ACTS) providing access (via the steerable antenna) to high performance computation and high resolution 3D visualization that are not only practical but also crucial for many medical applications, especially for remote regions or moving populations. This demonstration is expected to stimulate new medical services as well as delivery mechanisms that transcend both time and distance barriers. The availability of remote access to supercomputing via high-speed portable connections will have a profound impact on the provision of image-based medical services, and this certainly bears important implications for future PACS development.

High-Performance Telemedicine Information Management

“…In addition, the 3D data visualization is another that requires intelligent image processing, such as the segmentation of 2D slices for reconstructing a 3D volume, and the projection of a 3D object to a 2D screen. For supporting the goals of MISSION-DBS, we have developed symbolic encoding techniques [26], pursued an advanced neural network feature extractor [24,25], and explored the parallel execution of 3D volume rendering code [44]. These techniques will be integrated into a``toolset'' in our MISSION-DBS.…”

“…CADx software for detecting abnormality or patterns that are easily missed by trained eyes is highly needed, such as for lung nodules [19,44].…”

“…This module handles data format and transfer functions according to the underlying multimedia communication protocols (gateway and router functions) [6,44].…”

<title>Intelligent distributed medical image management</title>

“…In the next section, we will first discuss the requirements for a medical database system in the context of Project MISSION (Medical Imaging Support via Satellite Integrated Optical Network)an experimental high performance gigabit satellite communications network environment with remote supercomputing power and 3D volume visualization capabilities available (see [44] for details). Based on the requirements, appropriate approaches will be identified and integrated into our target system -MISSION-DBS.…”

“…A critical step to "understand" images is to decompose a picture into meaningful parts --to separate objects from background and to distinguish among objects after an image is properly digitized and coded (e.g., with gray level). For supporting the goals of MISSION DBS, we have developed symbolic encoding techniques [26], pursued an advanced neural network feature extractor [24,251, and explored the parallel execution of 3D volume rendering code [44]. [8].…”