DIGITAL INTERNET-BASED OPHTHALMOLOGICAL I MAGE DATABASE

Objective To manage an ophthalmological image database easily and rati onally. Materials and Methods Fundus, macro and simultaneously recorde d Fluorescein and ICG angiography images were digitized and archived u sing personalcomputers and UNIX workstations. Image data were written to CD-recordables. The CD-s with image information were stored in a ju kebox-server. On demand image information was converted to dynamic hyp ertext markup language (html) with a WWW-server. Information stored on the servers could be observed with browser programs running on client computers connected to local area network. The communication with oph thalmologist working outside our hospital was realized by electronic m ail. Results Different platforms (PC, Mac, workstations, etc.) and ope rating systems (Windows 3.x, 95, NT, MacOS, UNIX, etc.) can be used as clients. The communication with the system is accomplished by standar d internet programs (Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, etc.). Tha nks to the intuitive graphical user interface, no special computer kno wledge is required to retrieve the stored data. Conclusion Our digital image database has many advantages over a conventional image archive: it is round the clock available, images can be stored and copied with out loss of quality, digital images can be easily integrated in other applications, it can be used without special computer knowledge, it is expandable and compatible with all contemporary computer platforms.