Accessing endoscopic images for remote conference and diagnosis using WWW server with a secure socket layer

Out of 137 hospitals in Niigata prefecture, 13 are connected to the Internet. The number of private clinics using the Internet has also increased. It is thought that an endoscopic information exchange over the Internet connection is useful for the cooperation between hospitals, clinics and organizations in related fields. A conventional World Wide Web (WWW) server of endoscopic images has been built around a compressed JPEG (Joint Panel Expert Group) format, for remote conferences and diagnoses. It has been made secure using a proxy server, a firewall server and a Secure Socket Layer (SSL). It is easy to access the server and view these endoscopic images using the usual homepage browsing method. Ordinarily, gastroenterologists would diagnose lesions with endoscopy in most cases. It is suggested that this conventional WWW server will be effective for remote conferences in some cases, even consultation will be possible.