DICOM and XML usage for multimedia teleconsultation and for reimbursement in cardiology

We´ve defined an open, scaleable telemedicine architecture to reduce the time of reports delivery and consultation; increasing their simplicity via introducing common image capture, compression, storage, presentation- and telecommunication formats and methods for telecardiology based on DICOM. We´ve developed a software application to implement them in 4 Hungarian and 4 Lithuanian cardiac clinics, introducing the most appropriate digital imaging methods and formats using the latest available technology. We describe data and document exchange among health care providers (hospitals, GPs etc.) and the reimbursing insurance institutes introducing XML technology. We present the most important XML datasets for reimbursement in Hungary, the validation schemas and procedures, comparing the XML and old data file sizes with different compressions and (server and client) XML tools. The comparison includes different schema file sizes, and validation times.