A Java viewer to publish Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) radiologic images on the world wide web

The world wide web is an exciting service that allows one to publish electr onic documents made of text and images on the internet. Client software cal led a web browser can access these documents, and display and print them. T he most popular browsers are currently Microsoft Internet Explorer (Microso ft, Redmond, WA) and Netscape Communicator (Netscape Communications, Mounta in View, CA). These browsers can display text in hypertext markup language (HTML) format and images in Joint Photographic Expert Group (JPEG) and Grap hic Interchange Format (GIF). Currently, neither browser can display radiol ogic images in native Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM ) format. With the aim to publish radiologic images on the internet, we wro te a dedicated Java applet. Our software can display radiologic and histolo gic images in DICOM, JPEG, and GIF formats, and provides a a number of func tions like windowing and magnification lens. The applet is compatible with some web browsers, even the older versions. The software is free and availa ble from the author. Copyright (C) 2001 by W.B. Saunders Company.