Digital image management: networking, display, and archiving

The requirements for implementing a radiology imaging network are similar to those for local area networks now being designed for other purposes to manage large data films. A radiology department serving a 500-bed hospital generates about 927 megabytes of digitally formatted data per working day. These data are expected to be on line for the patient's hospitalization period. The retrieval rate of these data among the interactive diagnosis display stations requires data throughput rates of between 2 and 5 megabits per second. This throughput rate requires signaling rates of between 20 and 50 megabits per second. Analog hard-copy generation of the images on the network is required by the referring physician for selected images that support the consultation report. Digital laser recorders using paper may be quite satisfactory. Long-term archiving must be low in cost and requires a database scheme capable of managing more than a terabyte of image data. Radiology networks must be required to bridge with other hospital information systems.