The Telemedicine benchmark - a general tool to measure and compare the performance of video conferencing equipment in the telemedicine area

In this paper, we describe the 'Telemedicine Benchmark' (TMB), which is a s et of standard procedures, protocols and measurements to test reliability a nd levels of performance of data exchange in a telemedicine session. We hav e put special emphasis on medical imaging, i.e. digital image transfer, joi nt viewing and editing and 3D manipulation. With the TMB, me can compare th e aptitude of different video conferencing software systems for telemedicin e issues and the effect of different network technologies (ISDN, xDSL, ATM, Ethernet). The evaluation criteria used are length of delays and functiona lity. For the application of the TMB, a data set containing radiological im ages and medical reports was set up. Considering the Benchmark protocol, th is data set has to be exchanged between the partners of the session. The Be nchmark covers file transfer, whiteboard usage, application sharing and vol ume data analysis and compression. The TMB has proven to be a useful tool i n several evaluation issues. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rig hts reserved.