Overview

This volume contains the proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute on "Pictorial Information Systems in Medicine" held August 27-September 7, 1984 in Hotel Maritim, Braunlage/Harz, Federal Republic of Germany. The program committee of the institute consisted of KH Hohne (Director), G. T Herman, G. S. Lodwick, and D. Meyer-Ebrecht. The organization was in the hands of Klaus Assmann and Fritz Bocker In the last decade medical imaging has undergone a rapid development New imaging modalities such as Computer Tomography (CT), Digital Angiography (DSA) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) were developed using the capabilities of modern computers. In a modern hospital these technologies produce already more then 25% of image data in digital form. This format lends itself to the design of computer assisted Information systems Integrating data acquisition, presentation, communi- cation and archiving for all modalities and users within a department or even a hospital. Advantages such as rapid access to any archived Image, synoptic presentation, computer assisted image analysis to name only a few, are expected. The design of such pictorial information systems, however, often called PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication Systems) In the medical community is a non-trivial task involving know-how from many disciplines such as - Medicine (especially Radiology), - Data Base Technology, - Computer Graphics, - Man Machine Interaction, - Hardware Technology and others. Most of these disCiplines are represented by disjunct scientific communities.