Customized medical image databases: a low-cost approach

The increasing use of digital images in medicine creates a demand for efficient but simple methods to store, retrieve and display images. The ideal solution for this might be a large-scale hospital-integrated picture archiving and communication systems, but this is not applicable under all conditions. A small-scale, user-defined image database running on a desktop computer may fit the individual needs better, while yielding optimal cost-effectiveness. We will present a way to create customized image databases using a general-purpose desktop database system and a specialized, dedicated image handling component programmed in C++.