Francis Klumb DIPLENG, PhD, Presenter: Nothing to Disclose

Nicolas - Roduit MS, PhD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

David Bandon, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Antoine Geissbuhler, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

More and more, the Electronic Patient Record manages multimedia information: radiological images, endoscopic or surgical videos, digital photography. Those data need to be distributed and quickly displayed within the hospital but also outside the hospital to general practitioners. Within computerized environments such access is increasingly based on web technologies. Therefore, there is a strong opportunity for a multipurpose web-based viewer.

The WADO protocol is part of the DICOM standard and it defines web based mechanisms for accessing DICOM persistent objects from HTML pages through HTTP or secure HTTPs protocol. WADO has been added to the DICOM standard in the early 2000s but it is still emerging: WADO-compliant software are very few on the market. The WEASIS image viewer is the first one in this category that is freely distributable to the medical community.

The Java-based WEASIS image viewer is multiplatform. It has been designed to meet several expectations of the clinical information system and its future evolution regarding medical imaging: providing a web-based access to the radiological images, as well as offering multimedia capability like displaying video (DICOM Mpeg-2) and digital photography. This viewer is optimized for web-based applications like telemedicine, and integrates multiple strategies for downloading images. Its plug-in based architecture offers a wide flexibility for real-time adding of new components, like data compression modules or specific image analysis tools. WEASIS can be easily interfaced to any PACS supporting WADO via a web portal. It has been successfully interfaced to the open-source dcm4chee platform. It is used in a clinical environment for distributing radiological images, videos and photography within and outside the hospital.

The viewing software Weasis is freely distributable, and our goal is to widely provide the medical and academic community with simple means of adding home-made clinical and research modules. Furthermore, adding new viewing protocols is feasible through a simple software configuration. We thus intend to enlarge the field of applications and follow the global evolutions of the medical imaging world.

Klumb, F, Roduit, N, Bandon, D, Geissbuhler, A, WEASIS: A Free and Multifunctional Web-based Image Viewer, WADO Compliant.  Radiological Society of North America 2009 Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting, November 29 - December 4, 2009 ,Chicago IL. http://archive.rsna.org/2009/8011058.html