[Towards the integration of the digital medical image folder within the computerized patient folder: PACS and image...

Medical Images are components of the so-called "Medical Imaging Folder". This folder is a subset of the so-called "Medical Folder", part of the "Patient Folder. The G8 promotes the concept of a "Global Information Society for Health. Within this society, the Patient Folder is seen either from a healthcare organization, from a country or from an international point of view. The Global Patient Folder (Healthcare Folder) is composed of the different Patient Folder instances. Presently, Pacs and Telemedicine are no longer concerned only by storage and transmission issues. The medical images have only meaning associated with their context, the patient healthcare status. This context is rich in information provided by various information systems or healthcare professionals. The different data are linked and time dependant. Therefore, the expert community in the field of patient records argues that the approach must be the integration of Medical Images within the patient folder. It appears clearly that the complete deployment of such an "International Healthcare Folder" needs time and will proceed in several steps. Due to the increase of the people's mobility this deployment is inescapable. Infrastructure must be sized up taking into account the Digital Medical Image spreading and its large data volume which necessitates a large bandwith. In this paper, we detail the Medical Image Folder concept and its position within the Patient Folder and the Healthcare Folder. Then we present PACS, networking and Telemedicine concepts as well as the needs in standards.