AN INVESTIGATION OF A COST-EFFECTIVE SOLUTION FOR MULTIMEDIA MEDICAL INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

The unstructured paper-based medical document contains heterogeneous data formats, such as text-based medical reports, graphics data, such as electrocardiograms, radiographic snapshots, such as Chest X-rays and MRI, possibly motion image sequences, such as angiograms, and verbal comments of physicians in surgeries. These multimedia information are currently stored in paper folders as print-outs, films, or tapes. The information has a high risk of being misfiled or wearing out. Advances in multimedia technology have made possible the authoring, storage and presentation of medical information in a systematic and easily-accessible way. This paper discusses the background and rationale that led to the design and prototyping of a computerized cost-effective multimedia medical document system.