Medical Data Management in Clouds

Medical Imaging Services over Cloud

Introduction

Nowadays,medicalimagingisavaluableandindispensabletoolinhealthcaresystems,representingtophysiciansakeyfactorfordeliveringhighqualitydecisions.ThePACS(PictureArchivingandCommunicationSystem)conceptembracesasetoftechnologiesforthearchiving,distribution,visualizationandacquisitionofmedicalimagesoveracomputernetwork[1].Comparedwiththetraditionalanaloguefilm,PACSbringssignificantbenefitsintheproductivity,economyandmanagementofahealthcareinstitution.ItscurrentsuccesswasboostedbytheintroductionoftheDICOMstandard,allowinginteroperabilitybetweensystemsfromdifferentmanufactures.

ThedeploymentofPACShasenabledfasterandbroaderaccesstomedicalimagedata.Themovementfromfilm-based processestodigitalprocesses,alliedtofasterandmorerobustnetworkinfrastructure,reducedthecostsassociatedwiththestorageandmanagementofimages,simplifieddataportability,andhaspavedthewayforthedevelopmentofnewapplicationsandworkingscenarios.

ThespreadofthePACSthroughtheInternethascreatedunforeseenscenariosfortheseofnewtechnologies[2,3]like,forinstance,Peer-to-PeerandCloudComputing.Therehasbeenastronginvestmentinbuildingcloudcomputinginfrastructuresforhealthproposals.ForinstancetheHarvardMedicalSchoolhasbuiltaninternalcomputingcloudtoenablecollaborativeresearchalongseveraldepartmentsandpartners.Anotherexample,TC3HealthCompanyisalreadyprovidinghealthcarepayerswithanintegratedsolutionsupportedbyAmazonWebServices,namelyS3,EC2,andSQStechnologies.However,despitethisstrategicmovement,therearestillrelativelyunexploredcomputationscenariosthatuseInternetservicesandprotocolsasawhole.

ComputingdevicesandInternetaccessarenowavailableanywhereandanytime,creatingnewopportunitiestoshareandtouseonlineresources[2,3].Atremendousamountofubiquitouscomputationalpower,suchasGoogleandAmazon,andanunprecedentednumberofInternetresourcesandservices,suchasemailandstorage,areusedeverydayasanormalcommodity.Also,Internetbandwidthisplentiful,whichallowsstoringdataonline.

Objective

ThisprojectaimsatsettingupanewgenerationPACSnetworkthatallowsmedicalandacademiccommunitiestoaccess,shareanddiscoverclinicalmedicalimages,throughopennetworks.ItaimstouseInternetcloudasthemajorproviderforcomputationalservicestoapplicationsinubiquitouscomputingenvironments.Thestudentwillinvestigate,proposeand (if possible) developnewdistributedsolutionstoallowthesharingandtheremoteaccesstomedicalimagingrepositories.

References

1. C. Costa, A. Silva, and J. L. Oliveira,"CurrentperspectivesonPACSwithaCardiologycasestudy"inAdvancedComputationalIntelligenceParadigmsinHealthcare2. p79-108. Studies in Computational Intelligence. Springer. 2007.

2. Indexing and retrieving DICOM data in disperse and unstructured archives, Carlos Costa, Filipe Freitas, Marco Pereira, Augusto Silva and José L. Oliveira, International Journal of Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery, 2009, Volume 4, Number 1, Pages 71-77.

3. Dicoogle - anOpenSource Peer-to-Peer . PACS, Carlos Costa, Carlos Ferreira, Luís Bastião, Luís Ribeiro and Augusto Silva, et al., Journal of Digital Imaging, October 2010.