A novel approach to medical image compression.

As medical/biological imaging facilities move towards complete film-less imaging, compression plays a key role. Although lossy compression techniques yield high compression rates, the medical community has been reluctant to adopt these methods, largely for legal reasons, and has instead relied on lossless compression techniques that yield low compression rates. The true goal is to maximise compression while maintaining clinical relevance and balancing legal risk.

A comparison of wavelet and Joint Photographic Experts Group lossy compression methods applied to medical images.

This presentation focuses on the quantitative comparison of three lossy compression methods applied to a variety of 12-bit medical images. One Joint Photographic Exports Group (JPEG) and two wavelet algorithms were used on a population of 60 images. The medical images were obtained in Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) file format and ranged in matrix size from 256 x 256 (magnetic resonance [MR]) to 2,560 x 2,048 (computed radiography [CR], digital radiography [DR], etc).

Starting young: improving the health and developmental outcomes of infants and toddlers in the child welfare system.

The number of infants and toddlers entering out-of-home care has increased dramatically in the past few years, yet few published reports examine their needs. This article describes a collaborative, multidisciplinary developmental follow-up program for infants and toddlers that builds on the community-based family support model described in the Family to Family Foster Care Reform Initiative. The children's health and developmental status, as well as the program's effectiveness, are highlighted.

"Robo-Rad": an inexpensive user-friendly multimedia report system for radiology.

Background And Purpose: The complex information obtained by CT, MR, and ultrasound examinations is often difficult to convey with a written report. Today's multimedia computer technology provides a medium within which the audio and the visual components of a radiologic consultation can be made available simultaneously, with the projected capability of remote access from any personal computer. A system was developed to run on low-end computer systems with image quality adequate for reporting purposes and prudent memory management (each report occupies < 4 MB).