Grid Services Architecture for Archiving and Presentation of medical images

Grid computing is being used to provide medical image library services both for large data / picture archives and the diagnostic support through information sharing between hospitals and physicians. These images are hetrogeneously scattered and often have in compatible formats of storage. The size of the archives, data transport requirements and additional security concerns due to personal ownership are some of the issues that require special services over the grid arcitectures. The mechanisms for resource sharing, management, and image servicing in the grid architecture have been reviwed to support telemedicine activities. The paper focusses on four main issues i.e. large disk storage, efficient services over broad band networks with intelligent disks, security concerns in handling medical data and workflow requirements for global connectivity of hospitals in virtual organisations. A set of functional modules for Service Architecture for Archiving and Presentation (SAAP) has been suggested to provide medical imaging services efficiently over the grid.