Health Telematics (AIM) Final Report


	Updated: Feb 1, 97
EURIPACS

European Integrated Pacs in the hospital

Project Code: A2009

Project value: 9186 KECU

EC contribution: 4800 KECU

No of partners: 21

No of countries: 12

Duration: 36 months

Contact:
Prof. Michel Osteaux
Université de Bruxelles
Faculté de Medicine
Laarbeklaan 101
B-1090 Bruxelles, Belgium
Tel.: +32-2-477.60.50 / 53.23 / 53.24
Fax: +32-2-477.58.00

Overview

EURIPACS set out to create and implement the architecture for the next-generation of Picture Archiving and Communication Systems - one which is technically open and efficient, clinically effective, and commercial - and to prove that it can be applied widely. The objectives of the development project involved developing a technical infrastructure for PACS analogous to other data networks, ensuring throughout that it is open and accommodates multiple suppliers and technologies, and providing examples of effective services which such an infrastructure makes possible.

Purpose and objectives

Digital records and computer networks are now widely adopted in most field of economic activity. They enable access to a record by several people at the same time , automatic analysis of the contents, conferencing by telephone, and combination of these facilities. such networks have brought undoubted benefits to the organisations that use them. But the same has not happened to any great extent with medical images, partly because of predominance of X-ray film and partly because of the very high volume of data that characterise images.

However, during the last twenty years diagnostic images has moved into digital modalities, which cannot exist without a network like infrastructure. added to this, the idea of transmitting, storing and managing all medical images on a digital basis is now taking hold. Storage capacity and transmission speeds and the technologies for indexing and retrieving distributed image data, have now made full Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS) technically feasible.

The EURIPACS project took up the development in 1991. The partners set out to create and implement the architecture for the next generation of PACS, one which is technically open and efficient, clinically effective and commercial, and to demonstrate that it can be applied.

The objectives were expressed as being:

to develop a technical infrastructure for PACS in medicine analogous to other data-networks
to provide examples of effective services which such an infrastructure makes possible, and
to ensure throughout that it is open and accommodates multiple suppliers and technologies.

Results

The concepts that EURIPACS have implemented and demonstrated in its prototypes are the followings:

is medically driven, to suit the needs of different clusters of users,
interacts with the user in a flexible, variable and adaptive manner
accommodates multiple vendors, using recognised standards and allow for emerging technologies
is modular with a number of specialised replaceable component systems, logically integrated and distributed
achieves acceptable operation times, using high speed and high capacities technologies
utilises intelligence also to prefetch and preload related and comparable images
is integrated with other Hospital Information Systems and can be linked to external points of care.

Exploitation and follow-through can be viewed as making thrusts on three fronts:

- commercial exploitation, clinical development of more services, better

interoperability and standardisation.

Commercial exploitation has passed to the industrial partners, who include well -known companies names such as General Electric, Hewlett-Packard and Philips MS, and smaller enterprises: Bazis, Medicom, Imtec-Sectra, Knossos Technologies.

In the clinical area implementation and validation are scheduled to continue at the sites of Aachen Hospital, AZ-VUB Brussels, Marburg, the Pisa District, Rennes and Luxembourg.

EURIPACS implementations are also part of the ISAR and TRILOGY projects in the Health Care Telematics Applications Programme.

List of Deliverables

Year 1

Approved broadboard : Switch Unit & Transceiver/Interface (6/P/I)
Computer aided diagnosis in radiology: survey and analysis (6/R/P)
Guidelines for collecting reference images (6/S/P)
Image data base for quality evaluation of compressed/decom. images (6/R/L)
Compression/decompression algorithm for still image with samples (6/R/L)
Report on user interface requirements (6/R/P)
Analysis of communication patterns, development of scenarios (6/R/P)
Specification for PACS management (6/S/I)
Ethical and legal rules concerning PACS in selected EC Countries (10/R/P)
Computer aided diagnosis of bone tumours (without image functions) (12/P/R)
ROC Studies 1 (12/R/L)
Regulation on computer aspect of diagnostic imaging (12/R/P)
Image class base image processing (12/P/I)
Implement prototype in integrated testbed (12/P/P)
European PACS status report 1992 (includes other projects) (12/R/P)

Year 2

Report on high-speed protocols (4/S/P)
Availability of industrial prototype network components (4/P/P)
Interface units for film digitizer and SPS (4/P/P)
Statistical analysis and clustering of the images in the data base (4/R/P)
Basic interface (4/P/L)
Functional requirements for workstations, req. of application interfaces (4/S/L)
Models of diagnostic information requirements & user interface scenario (4/R/I)
Report : Flow breakdown and monitoring prototype (6/R/I)
Netec: approval of the demonstrators operation: phase 1.(10/O/P)
Approval of the demonstrators operation : Phase 2.(10/O/P)
Technical implementation scenario (10/R/I)
Suggestions: use of the ISAC principle & patient-oriented Dir (10/R/P)
Compression/decompression of stereoscopic images & sequence of images (10/R/P)
ROC studies 3 (10/R/P)
Study of progressive transmission of images (10/R/P)
Prototype prefetching and archiving module (10/P/L)
Prototype modality archiving and prefetching server (10/P/L)
MIDAM II prototype build I (10/P/L)
Implementation of messaging communication software modules (10/T/I)
Implementation of 1) Conferencing 2) consulting software modules (10/T/I)
Prototype (10/P/I)
European PACS status report 1993 (includes other projects) (10/R/P)
MIMOSA overall specification (preliminary version) (10/S/I)

Year 3

Implementation of the improved network protocol (6/P/I)
Approval of the demo. netw. oper. : image based software (6/O/P)
Laboratory prototype (6/P/I)
Computer aided diagnosis of bone tumours with image functions (6/P/R)
Selecti. of FDDI profiles, network throughput & standardise. suggestions (6/R/P)
Extended interface (6/P/L)
Integration of messaging, conferencing and consulting modules on site (6/P/I)
Evaluation of selected trials of communication workstations (6/R/P)
Integration of efficient spatial access methods into an existing DBMS (6/R/L)
Machine learning and clustering techniques (6/R/L)
Report and prototype service management (6/P/P)
Report on clinical experiences with the demonstrator (12/R/P)
Adaptive workstation description (Final report) (12/R/P)
Clinical experiences with a system for computer aided diagnoses (12/R/P)
Final version software tool TA-PACS (12/T/P)
Guidelines for Pacssystem developers and implementators (12/R/P)
Implementation experience standards and suggestion for enhancements (12/R/P)
Report on experience with FDDI network in clinical routine operation (12/R/P)
Prototype hardware implementation of a compress/decomp. algorithm (12/D/P)
Implementation / evaluation, final report (12/R/P)
Proposals about digital and conventional archiving (12/R/P)
MIDAM II prototype build II (12/P/L)
Report on performance of MIDAM II prototype (12/R/L)
Final prototype (12/P/I)
Performance evaluation results (12/R/L)
Program representing the newly designed network management procedures (12/P/P)
Report : Implemented layered management (12/R/P)
European PACS status report 1994 (includes other projects) (12/R/P)
Final project report (12/R/P)
Demo: Demonstration of HIS/PACS links (12/D/R)
MIMOSA final report (12/R/P)

List of Participants

Prof. Dietrich Meyer-Ebrecht RWTH Univ. Technology Aachen Lehrstuhl für Messtechnik Templergraben 55 D-5100 Aachen, Germany Tel.: +49-241-80.78.60 Fax: +49-241-80.78.71	Ir. Rudi Van De Velde AZ V.U.B. Medical Information Dept. Laarbeeklaan 101 B-1090 Brussels, Belgium Tel.: +32-2-477.69.71 Fax: +32-2-477.58.00
Dr. Fenno P. Ottes BAZIS Schipholweg 97 NL-2316 XA Leiden, The Netherlands Tel.: +31-71-25.67.26 Fax: +31-71-21.66.75	Prof. David Bell Univ. Ulster Information Systems Shore Road Newtownabbey BT37 0QB, U.K. Tel.: +44-223-36.51.31 ext. 23.11 Fax: +44-223-36.28.03
Prof. Stelios Orphanoudakis Foundation Of Research And Technology - FORTH Institute of Computer Science Daidalou 36 PO Box 1385 GR-71110 Heraklion, Greece Tel.: +30-81-22.93.46 / 21.00.57 Fax: +30-81-22.93.42 E-mail: orphanou@csi.forth.gr	Prof. Robert Goutte Inst. National Sciences Appl. De Lyon Lab.Trait. Signal Ultrasons URA1216 - BAT. 502 L.T.S.U. 20 Av. Albert Einstein F-69621 Villeurbanne, France Tel.: +33-72-43.82.27 Fax: +33-72-43.85.26
Mr. Stephen Todd Hewlett-Packard Ltd. Medical Products Group R & D Filton Road/ Stoke Gifford Bristol BS12 6QZ, U.K. Tel.: +44-272-22.87.98 Fax: +44-272-79.05.54	Mr. Emmanuel Pavageau GE-CGR Dept. Multimodalite rue de la Miniere 283 F-78530 Buc, France Tel.: +33-1-30.70.41.06 Fax: +33-1-30.70.42.26
Dr. Gregory Votsis Intracom SA Development Programmes 19,5 KM Markopoulou Avenue GR-19002 Peania-Attika, Greece Tel.: +30-1-664.49.61 Fax: +30-1-664.33.79	Prof. Guenther Gell Med. Informatik / Radiologie Dept. Medical Informatics Auenbruggerplatz 9 A-8036 Graz, Austria Tel.: +43-316-385.32.01 Fax: +43-316-385.32.07
Mr. Goesta Tidell IMTEC Imaging Network AB Glunten S-75183 Uppsala, Sweden Tel.: +46-18-55.58.00 Fax: +46-18-52.33.26	Dr. Torbjörn Kronander Sectra Secure Transmission AB Teknikringen 2 S-58330 Linköping, Sweden Tel.: +46-13-21.20.50 Fax: +46-13-21.21.85
Mr. Andre Dhuyvetter Information Technology & Services S.A. rue de la Fusee 64 B-1130 Brussels, Belgium Tel.: +32-2-245.62.10 Fax: +32-2-245.79.50	Mr. Roberto Di Paolo Unite 66 INSERM Inst. Gustave Roussy rue Camille Desmoulins 39 F-94805 Villejuif, France Tel.: +33-1-45.59.42.47 Fax: +33-1-45.59.64.43
Mr. Robert Kanz Centre De Recherche Public Henri Tudor rue Coudenhove-Kalergh 6 L-1359 Luxembourg Tel.: +352-43.62.33 Fax: +352-43.65.23	Prof. Dr. Otto Rienhoff Philips-Universitaet Marburg Bunsenstrasse 3 D-3550 Marburg, Germany Tel.: +49-6421-28.32.48 Fax: +49-6421-28.27.98
Dr. Med. Bertold Wein Klinik für Radiologische Diagnostik Pauwelstraße 30 D-5100 Aachen, Germany Tel.: +49-241-808.83.32 Fax: +49-241-87.59.92	Mr. Rudy Mattheus V.U.B. - PRIMIS Radiology & Medical Imaging Laarbeeklaan 101 B-1090 Brussels, Belgium Tel.: +32-2-477.53.26 Fax: +32-2-477.53.27



	Copyright 1997 © EHTO All rights reserved This server is the only official EHTO WWW knowledge repository. Mail suggestions to: webmaster@ehto.org