Teleradiology using switched dialup networks

A dialup wide-bandwidth digital teleradiology system is discussed. A laser film digitizer and a gray scale display system are used at Irwin and Munson Army Community Hospitals to digitize radiographic films and display digital images. A laser film printer at the University of Kansas Medical Center generates a film hardcopy of the transmitted digital data, and an interactive gray scale display is used to review the digital image data. The communication system consists of dialup switched multiple 56000 b/s digital channels, transmitting digital image data in parallel. Conventional radiographic films, multiformat camera films, and laser printed films from multimodality imaging systems have been successfully digitized, transmitted, and laser film recorded or gray scale displayed. It was found that the system provided clinically acceptable image quality reproductions.< >