Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Sep 18, 2019
Date Accepted: Aug 11, 2020
Comparison of different technologies for remote viewing of radiological images
ABSTRACT
Background:
Internet technologies can create advanced and rich web-based applications that allow radiologists to access easily to the teleradiology system and remotely view medical images. However, each technology has its own drawbacks. Thus, it is difficult to balance the advantages and disadvantages of these Internet technologies and identify an optimum solution for the development of medical imaging applications.
Objective:
This study aimed to compare different Internet technologies for remote viewings of radiological images and analyze their advantages and disadvantages.
Methods:
Three main Internet technologies, i.e. Oracle Java, Adobe Flash, and HTML5, were used to respectively develop a comprehensive web-based medical imaging application. This application connects to a medical image server and can provides several required functions for radiological interpretation, e.g. navigation, magnification, windowing, and fly-through. Java-, Flash-, and HTML5-based medical imaging applications were tested on different operating systems over a local area network and a wide area network. Three computed tomography colonography datasets and two ordinary personal computers (PCs) were used in the experiment.
Results:
The experimental results demonstrate that Java-, Flash-, and HTML5-based applications have the ability to provide real-time performances for all the provided two-dimensional tools. However, the three-dimensional (3D) performances of the three applications are different. The Java-based application could provide highest frame rate of volume rendering. However, it needed the longest time for surface rendering and failed to run surface rendering on Mac. The HTML5-based application could provide the fastest surface rendering and the highest speed for fly-through without platform dependence. The 3D performances of the Flash-based application were significantly worse than the other two applications.
Conclusions:
Oracle Java, Adobe Flash, and HTML5 have their individual strengths in the development of remote access medical imaging applications. However, HTML5 is a promising technology for remote viewing of radiological images and can provide an excellent performance without requiring any plugin.
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