Platform independent implementation of DICOM-based miniPACS

Platform independence is an important issue for a software designed to run across a hospital environment which is practically always heterogeneous one. This paper presents a simple miniPACS solution designed over an existing Intranet (Internet limited to a local area network). Platform independence is achieved with Java programming language which allows resulting code to be executed on virtually all machines. System consists of a server application providing DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) services and clients that can use these services over a TCP/IP connection. The server application is capable of an image storage and supports a query mechanism to allow access to stored data, thus the clients may perform two major functions: providing image data for archiving or image retrieval for viewing. Presented client application provides both these functions. It retrieves stored images for further processing and returns calculated results to the archive. The parts of the system are connected through a DICOM interface. Consequently the system architecture is open and any devices like scanners or viewing stations supporting specific DICOM services may be attached.