Computer-based radiology information system: from floppy disk to CD-ROM

The authors have developed a comprehensive computer-based radiology information system known as "Radiology Resource and Review" (R3). The content is divided into 10 radiology information categories spanning the entire human body and presently includes more than 4 Mbytes of text, 9,000 topics, and 6,000 images. The R3 software and the information content are stored on compact disk, read-only memory (CD-ROM) media. The images are compressed by using a standard compression algorithm. Images and text are cross-indexed with more than 13,000 key words, which can be linked together in searches by using Boolean logic. Four different retrieval interfaces support browsing of text and image information, diagnosis decision making, self-study, and teaching file preparation. The 10-year university-funded evolution of R3 is an example of the transition in storage media from floppy disk to CD-ROM.