MicroPACS: A PC-based small PACS implementation

Abstract-The paper presents and discusses a universal client/server object-oriented patient database system for clinical and personal applications. The developed system makes it possible to manage all patient specific data in the unified way by means of o bject-oriented representation of heterogeneous medical data, which include patient details, examination results and doctor visits history. The presented implementation includes a database server and a universal client application, which serves as a container for manifold medical applications that require database services. This approach enables to simplify drastically the implementation of database support in client applications and to put the main computational burden on the container application, which communicates with its clients by means of defined interface protocols.Keywords -database management, OLE, COM+, client/server, biomedical data, distributed database. I. INTRODUCTIONDuring past several years the growth of costs of medical care system maintenance has led medical information system developers to the new approach based on patient-oriented architecture. The result of these tendencies is involving of a growing number of new organizations with their heterogeneous systems in the common informational environment. At present the design and development of Database Management Systems (DBMS) is one the most rapidly growing sphere of IT technologies in medical care [1].Currently two approaches to implementation of complex medical DBMS solutions are available. First one is complete reequipment with installation of new diagnostic systems preferably produced and supported by the single manufacturer. It enables to use the integration possibilities offered by the single supplier more effectively. Second approach is slightly more complicated for the implementation because it implies the integration of each particular medical application with a common DBMS. Moreover, not every application may offer such integration features. In case of presence of medical diagnostic equipment that doesn't satisfy entirely or in part the modern standards of medical information interchange the second approach has no alternative.The approach we developed makes it possible to solve this task minimizing the expenditures for the system integration and providing at the same time smooth transition for obsolete equipment to the new level of medical information system interoperability. The main principle of the named approach is that the medical application carrying out diagnostic functions is itself responsible for establishing and maintaining interchange with a databank, preserving and visualizing data in the required form. In case of absence of the required application on the particular workstation it can be installed automatically. Common functionality provided by a hosting operating system (OS) is shared between applications designed for this OS what provides extended flexibility for data interchange facility implementation. Currently the developed system makes it possible to integrate ...

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“…Internal replication utility applicable to selected patient records in the enterprise database and newly created patient records [4]; b.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%