Web-based viewing of picture archiving and communications systems images -Part II: The effect of compression on speed of transmission

Now that picture archiving and communications systems (PACS) has matured, o ur challenge is to make the images available to the referring physician and , in a teaching institution, to make these images available for conferences and rounding. One solution is the distribution of the images using web-bas ed technology. We investigated a web-based add-on to our PACS to determine the characteristics of the personal computer that will make this technology useful and affordable. We found that images can be viewed easily through a web-based system. We found that the optimal system to view these images at a reasonable speed and a reasonable cost is on with a medium-range process or (200 to 300 MHz) and a large amount of inexpensive RAM, at least 64 Mb. Copyright (C) 1999 by W.B. Saunders Company.