Digital images in Dermatology and DOIA (Dermatology Online Atlas)

Thomas L. Diepgen
Dept. of Dermatology, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg
91052 Erlangen, Hartmannstr. 14, Germany

With the development of computer hardware and networks the digital image has become an accessible and important tool in dermatology. The World Wide Web (WWW), videoconferencing, multimedia mail, and image databases facilitate applications of digital images in a visual orientated discipline like dermatology. For example, an image database is available through the WWW and used for medical education as well as a reference image atlas for physicians. Teledermatology applications that use digital images have become popular. Finally, an increasing number of CD-ROMs containing dermatological images have been developed. Resolution, compression, and colour depth of the images have to be optimized to enable fast access and to offer acceptable image quality. These important issues will be discussed in this lecture.

The World Wide Web (WWW) is becoming the major way of acquiring information in all scientific disciplines as well as in business. It is very well suitable for fast distribution and up to date teaching resources. However, to date most teaching applications on the Web do not use its full power by integrating interactive components. We have set up a computer based training (CBT) framework for Dermatology which consists of dynamic lecture scripts, case reports, and an Dermatology Online Atlas (DOIA). All these components heavily rely on an underlying image database that permits the creation of dynamic documents. We used a demon process that keeps the database open and can be accessed using HTTP to achieve better performance and avoid the overhead involved by starting common gateway interface processes. For the user, only a WWW browser is required. The acceptance of our WWW-server is surprisingly high. Nowadays we register over 20.000 accesses to our Dermatology on-line atlas per day from all over the world.

　

References:

1. Bittorf A, Krejci-Papa NC, Diepgen TL: Development of a dermatologic image atlas with world wide access for the continuous education of physicians. Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare 1: 45-53 (1995)

2. Bittorf A, Krejci-Papa NC, Diepgen TL: Storage and retrieval of digital images in dermatology. Skin Research and Technology 1: 192-199 (1995)

3. Bittorf A, Diepgen TL: Teaching Resources for Dermatology on the WWW - Quiz System and Dynamic Lecture Scripts using a HTTP-Database Demon. Proc AMIA Annu Fall Symp (United States) 46-50 (1996)

4. Diepgen TL, Bittorf A, Schuler G, Krejci-Papa NC: Dermatologie und Internet - Nutzen f殲 Klinik und Forschung. Hautarzt 48: 373-378 (1997)

5. Bittorf A, Bauer J, Simon M, Diepgen TL: Web CBT Modules in Dermatology. M.D.Computing 14: 371-381 (1997)

6. Bittorf A, Fartasch M, Schuler G, Diepgen TL: Resolution Requirements for Digital Images in Dermatology. J Am Acad Dermatol 37: 195-8 (1997)

7. Eysenbach G, Diepgen TL: Towards distributed quality management of medical information on the Internet. BMJ (in press)