Leveraging Internet Based Media Streaming Techniques for Transferring Radiology Information

SSM13-06

Leveraging Internet Based Media Streaming Techniques for Transferring Radiology Information

Scientific Papers

Presented on December 3, 2014
Presented as part of SSM13: Informatics (Image Sharing)

Shujah Das Gupta BSC, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Prasanth Kollaikal MS, Presenter: Nothing to Disclose

Sharing media over the internet (especially video) has led to several improvements in stream of large data objects. Medical Images are currently one of the largest chunks of unmanaged information which exist today and can potentially benefit by leveraging these mechanisms.

Both, video streaming sites (e.g., YouTube) and Torrent based file sharing application leverage principles which can be reused for transferring imaging information while complying with existing standards. Conceptually, these are present in the DICOM standard in the form of multiple association support. However, these can be further streamlined to improve data transfer and compression rates.

In order to maximize the benefits of video streaming techniques, the following assumptions are made: • For data exchange between sites, the content is consumed primarily at a study level instead of as independent images • For mobile/handheld devices, a lossy representation of the data is acceptable as these devices are typically used for collaborative as opposed to diagnostic purposes The DICOM standard relies on TCP as its base mechanism for transferring data. However, most media streaming sites use UDP for transferring information as it does not require a packet level acknowledgement. As a result, applications can continuously send packets of data to maximize bandwidth utilization which is tracked through a flow control management system. In order to integrate with existing workflows, video streaming techniques only need to be leveraged at the slowest portion of the network; usually internet based transfers (i.e., max-flow min-cut theorem) and can be reconstructed into full objects or retransmitted over TCP once the packets have reached the destination systems. The intermediate transfer can be abstracted from the participating systems provided that the data is appropriately formatted once it reaches the destination Security concerns can be mitigated by obfuscating the PHI data in the packets via common encryption algorithms which can be decrypted by participating systems through a common key.

As large imaging studies are becoming increasingly common, the transfer of data over networks is a key bottleneck especially for Image Sharing workflows and Tele-radiology. Video sharing mechanisms offer a logical improvement opportunity to improve the performance of transferring clinical data.