Electronic filing of medical images-its costs, reimbursement and standardization

The cost comparison of electronic medical image filing with conventional storage, and the reimbursement of its cost from the health insurance foundation has become an urgent key issue. The annual costs of electronic medical image filing were estimated and compared with that of film storage in two hospitals of different conditions. The storage of medical images of pixel size 100 /spl mu/m/spl times/100 /spl mu/m and 2-byte depth in the 130 mm, 650 MB magneto-optical disks costs us four times as much as that of films. But 175 /spl mu/m/spl times/175 /spl mu/m and 12 bits and implementation of lossless compression would reduce the cost to equal that of films. Doubled or tripled densities of MOD will improve the costs. Methods of cost reimbursement, remuneration and equipment depreciation are proposed. The relation between development of standard, cost reduction, and reimbursement are discussed.