Digitizing radiographs

I'm sitting in on a workshop that David Rothman is doing on RSS. This group is learning about RSS this morning, then I'll teach them about Second Life this afternoon. David has been showing the group places where there are RSS feeds and just took us to PubMed. And what did I search on in PubMed? Yup, digitization and this is what I found:

A model for digital archiving of radiographs into a searchable database.
Am J Orthod Dentofacial Orthop. 2007 Dec;132(6):856-9

Digital images are routinely used in orthodontic practices today. Many systems and formats are available for producing, storing, retrieving, viewing, and sharing these images. The digital imaging and communication in medicine (DICOM) standard is designed to ensure that these systems and formats are compatible, so that an image produced in a small private practice today can be viewed next year in a large hospital. The purpose of this article is to describe a method for laser scanning and digitization of analog (film) radiographs that meets DICOM standards and allows for web-based archiving, searching, and retrieval.

PMID: 18068609 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Glad to see that digitization is being talked about among the medical community. Actually, many hospitals are pushing the envelope of technology. Anything that can help them work smarter and faster is great.

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Technorati tag: Digitization