Integrating medical images, biosignals, and alphanumeric data in a cardiological department

A Cardiology multimedia patient record is under development. This long-term project incorporates the accomplishment of 5 main goals. (1) A digital archive for angiographic and echocardiographic images. (2) Viewing stations for these digital images. (3) An integrated digital Cathlab database. (4) An integrated digital Echocardiography database. (5) A cardiologic workstation allowing the physicians transparent access to multi-modal data. A prototype of this workstation is in operation in the authors´ outpatient clinic and includes access to an ECG-management system, the hospital information system, the departmental information system of the Thoraxcenter, and the prototypes of the integrated Echocardiography and Cathlab databases. This paper provides a snapshot describing prototypes of some of the systems, intermediate results and steps for solutions and further directions of developments