DISTRIBUTING AN ELECTRONIC THORACIC IMAGING TEACHING FILE USING THE INTERNET, MOSAIC, AND PERSONAL COMPUTERS

A high quality film-based teaching file requires effort and expense to create and maintain [1, 2]. The effort is worthwhile because film col lections are important vehicles for increasing a radiologist's persona l data base of clinical experience, Expert clinical reasoning is to a large extent the process of comparing a current case to a data base of individual cases available in memory [3]. A teaching file would be mo st helpful if it were available at the view box where it could be used to extend a radiologist's clinical experience [4]. Unfortunately, a f ilm-based file is confined to one area, usually remote from the view b ox. In addition, searching though a film file is difficult, the films wear out over time, and films are easily lost or stolen. Our goal is t he creation of a thoracic imaging teaching file that solves these prob lems by providing a digital collection of images, videos, and text tha t can be used in the work place by many users simultaneously. The firs t part of this teaching file is now continuously available locally wit hin our department and globally to users of the Internet.