CD-ROM based digital film library for radiography students

Abstract

The structure, organisation and use of digital (CD-ROM) radiography and medical imaging film library, based on an analog (film) collection, is described. The analog collection has been specialised for radiographic educational use in an undergraduate program, and includes relevant pathological appearance for traditional teaching using radiographic film and light boxes for review. The digital library has been produced for a broad medical and allied health professional educational application for use on either IBM-PC or Macintosh platforms with CD-ROM facilities. Film libraries are an essential resource in any radiography teaching program. However, film is easily damaged, frequently lost and hard to keep in reasonable order, but relatively cheaply digitised and stored in a suitable file format for student access. This paper describes the development of a navigation program that allows students to access a range of digitised film images from general radiography, fluoroscopy, vascular imaging, mammography, computed tomography, magnetic resonance and ultrasound. Provision is made for storage and display of the original image, an annotated image indicating features that students should be able to identify and describe, and a screen with text that provides this information if required. The digital library is also readily enlarged.