A mammography tele‐consultation pilot system in Taiwan

A pilot system for a mammography tele‐consultation in TaiChung Veterans General Hospital (TCVGH), Taiwan is proposed in this paper. It is developed and designed based on a distributed system and implemented in a top‐down high speed network hierarchy with communication security. It is also integrated with specific diagnostic tools and collaboration awareness tools currently available in TCVGH and linked with the external internet, Taiwan Academic Network (TANet) that will be upgraded into the next generation, TANet2 in the next five years. The distributed system is designed using a JAVA‐based remote method invoking system. It allows the transport of images through a firewall combined with peripheral applications that include a Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) server for image transmission, Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS), Hospital Information System (HIS) and computer‐aided diagnostic systems via a Java native interface. The communication security is implemented using ElGamal’s public‐key cryptosystem for identifications of authorization. Finally the specific mammography diagnostic tools and collaboration awareness tools demonstrated in the proposed system are developed in accordance with the Breast Imaging Reporting And Data System (BI‐RADS) suggested by the American College of Radiology.