Vietnamese scientists create software for remote medical consultations

ABO/VNA - DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) is widely used in hospitals and clinics as the most popular format for medical images.

With production costs just equal to one-third of imports, the data and medical image mining software system for medical consultations via mobile devices and smart TVs developed by Vietnamese scientists helps hospitals and patients reduce treatment costs.

DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) is widely used in hospitals and clinics as the most popular format for medical images.
Unlike other types of images, one DICOM file, in addition to imaging data, also contains information about patients, the machines that create the images, and other information.

DICOM also makes it easy to integrate image-receiving machines, servers, workstations, printers and other networking hardware from different manufacturers into PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication System), the system that stores and transmits images developed to provide quick retrievability and economical storage, used in the field of medical imaging diagnoses.

There are foreign made PACS available in Vietnam, but they are only used on a small scale in some large hospitals because of high costs ($5,000-10,000 for every doctor’s workstation).
Aware of the patient overloading in hospitals throughout the country, a research team including experts from iNext Technology and the HCM City University of Technology worked on a web-based DICOM data mining software system that serves medical consultations via mobile devices and smart TVs.
Nguyen Chi Ngoc, head of the research team, said a lot of challenges faced the team because of the specific regulations of the health sector, along with the novelty and high technology.
Due to the overloading at Vietnamese hospitals, the amount of DICOM image data to PACS is very large. In order to ensure accurate diagnoses, data from image diagnostic machines to PACS and data provided to mobile devices and smart TVs must be accurate and sufficient.
DICOM images through these devices must meet the diagnostic demands of experts and doctors inside and outside the hospitals via their personal mobile devices.
To address these challenges, for more than a year, the team perfected the data compression technology of the PACS to ensure that the online data storage is carried out continuously for a long time.

They also designed the DICOM Viewer Web app; completed DICOM data mining software of PACS, ensuring operation on mobile devices and Smart TVs; and perfected the load balancing technology of PACS to be able to provide 20 workstations operating at the same time and viewing DICOM images at hospitals.
BKPACS, their product, has been used at a number of hospitals, including Medic Hoa Hao, Thu Duc District Hospital, and the HCM City Hematology Blood Transfusion Institute.

Thanh Mai (Source: VNA)