GIDAC: A prototype for bioimages annotation and clinical data integration

Abstract

The analysis of bioimages and their correlated clinical patient information allows to investigate specific diseases and define the corresponding medical protocols. To perform a correct diagnosis and apply a precise therapy, bioimages must be collected and studied together with others relevant data as well as laboratory results, medical annotations and patient history. Today, the management of these data is performed by single systems inside hospital departments that often do not provide dedicated data integration platforms among different departments as well as different health structures to exchange of relevant clinical information. Also, images cannot be annotated or enriched by physicians to trace temporal studies for patients or even among patients with similar diseases. In this contribution, we report the results of a research project called GIDAC (standing for Gestione Integrata DAti Clinici) that aims to define a general purpose framework for the bioimages management and annotations as well as clinical data view and integration in a simple-to-use information system. The proposed framework does not substitute any existing clinical information system but is able in gathering and integrating data by using a XML-based module. The novelty also consists in allowing annotations on DICOM images by means of simple user-interface to take trace of changes intra images as well as comparisons among patients. This system supports oncologists in the management of DICOM images from different devices (e.g., ecograph or PACS) to extract relevant information necessary to query (annotate) images and study similar clinical cases.