Mimos: a description framework for exchanging medical image processing results

Image processing plays increasingly important role in using medical images, both for routine as for research purposes, due to the growing interest in functional studies (PET, MR, etc.). Unfortunately, there exist nearly as many formats for data and results coding as image processing procedures. If Dicom presently supports a kind of structured reporting of image studies, it does not take into account the semantics of the image handling domain. This can impede the exchange and the interpretation of processing results. In order to facilitate the use of image processing results, we have designed a framework for representing image processing results. This framework, whose principle is called an "ontology" in the literature, extends the formalism, which we have used in our previous work on image databases. It permits a systematic representation of the entities and information involved in the processing, that is not only input data, command parameters, output data, but also software and hardware descriptions, and relationships between these different parameters. Consequently, this framework allows the building of standardized documents, which can be exchanged amongst various users. As the framework is based on a formal grammar, documents can be encoded using XML. They are thus compatible with Internet / Intranet technology. In this paper, the main characteristics of the framework are presented and illustrated. We also discuss implementation issues in order to be able to integrate documents, and correlated images, handling these with a classical Web browser.