NITAAC NIH Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center


		TECHNICAL FUNCTIONAL AREA 2 C.2.2 Medical Sciences Technology Functional Area Image processing within the Clinical, Biological, and Radiological arenas is needed at the NIH and other Federal Agencies to address those document management, workflow, and security recognition systems requirements particular to the organizational administrative requirements mentioned previously. a. Electronic Image Applications - These disciplines need electronic image applications that are particular to the type of work being performed. These applications support diagnosis and therapy decision systems, which have historically depended on hard copy, spatially oriented information such as X-ray films and microscope diagnostic histology images. Other Government Agencies find imaging applications critical in the larger requirement of fulfilling their mission for the welfare of the Nation. Bringing the power of modern computational systems to these processes and activities, just as with hard copy text documents, requires conversion of this spatial information to electronic form. The information content of these documents is much richer, however, and the corresponding imaging applications may be significantly more involved. b. Medical Image Analysis - Medical image analysis may require recognition of slight differences in shading, a much more stringent imaging requirement than optical character recognition. Additional applications also exist which have no corresponding analogue with document imaging, such as 3D visualization or remote high resolution image transfer requirements associated with telemedicine.

TECHNICAL FUNCTIONAL AREA 2

C.2.2 Medical Sciences

Technology Functional Area Image processing within the Clinical, Biological, and Radiological arenas is needed at the NIH and other Federal Agencies to address those document management, workflow, and security recognition systems requirements particular to the organizational administrative requirements mentioned previously.

a. Electronic Image Applications - These disciplines need electronic image applications that are particular to the type of work being performed. These applications support diagnosis and therapy decision systems, which have historically depended on hard copy, spatially oriented information such as X-ray films and microscope diagnostic histology images. Other Government Agencies find imaging applications critical in the larger requirement of fulfilling their mission for the welfare of the Nation. Bringing the power of modern computational systems to these processes and activities, just as with hard copy text documents, requires conversion of this spatial information to electronic form. The information content of these documents is much richer, however, and the corresponding imaging applications may be significantly more involved.

b. Medical Image Analysis - Medical image analysis may require recognition of slight differences in shading, a much more stringent imaging requirement than optical character recognition. Additional applications also exist which have no corresponding analogue with document imaging, such as 3D visualization or remote high resolution image transfer requirements associated with telemedicine.