Imaging informatics
Encyclopedia
Introduction
Imaging Informatics, also known as Radiology Informatics or Medical Imaging Informatics, is a subspecialty of Biomedical Informatics that aims to improve the efficiency, accuracy, usability and reliability of medical imaging services within the healthcare enterprise. It is devoted to the study of how information about and contained within medical images is retrieved, analyzed, enhanced, and exchanged throughout the medical enterprise.As radiology is an inherently data-intensive and technology-driven specialty of medicine, radiologists have become leaders in Imaging Informatics. However, with the proliferation of digitized images across the practice of medicine to include fields such as cardiology, dermatology, surgery, gastroenterology, obstetrics, gynecology and pathology, the advances in Imaging Informatics are also being tested and applied in other areas of medicine. Various industry players and vendors involved with medical imaging, along with IT experts and other biomedical informatics professionals, are contributing and getting involved in this expanding field.
Imaging informatics exists at the intersection of several broad fields:
- biological science - includes bench sciences such as biochemistry, microbiology, physiology and genetics
- clinical services - includes the practice of medicine, bedside research, including outcomes and cost-effectiveness studies, and public health policy
- information scienceInformation science-Introduction:Information science is an interdisciplinary science primarily concerned with the analysis, collection, classification, manipulation, storage, retrieval and dissemination of information...
- deals with the acquisition, retrieval, cataloging, and archiving of information - medical physicsMedical physicsMedical physics is the application of physics to medicine. It generally concerns physics as applied to medical imaging and radiotherapy, although a medical physicist may also work in many other areas of healthcare...
/ biomedical engineeringBiomedical engineeringBiomedical Engineering is the application of engineering principles and design concepts to medicine and biology. This field seeks to close the gap between engineering and medicine: It combines the design and problem solving skills of engineering with medical and biological sciences to improve...
- entails the use of equipment and technology for a medical purpose - cognitive scienceCognitive scienceCognitive science is the interdisciplinary scientific study of mind and its processes. It examines what cognition is, what it does and how it works. It includes research on how information is processed , represented, and transformed in behaviour, nervous system or machine...
- studying human computer interactions, usability, and information visualization - computer scienceComputer scienceComputer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
- studying the use of computer algorithms for applications such as computer assisted diagnosis and computer vision
Areas of Interest
Key areas relevant to Imaging informatics include:- Picture Archiving and Communication SystemPicture archiving and communication systemA picture archiving and communication system is a medical imaging technology which provides economical storage of, and convenient access to, images from multiple modalities . Electronic images and reports are transmitted digitally via PACS; this eliminates the need to manually file, retrieve, or...
(PACS) and Component Systems - Imaging Informatics for the Enterprise
- Image-Enabled Electronic Medical Records
- Radiology Information SystemsRadiology Information SystemA radiology information system is a computerized database used by radiology departments to store, manipulate and distribute patient radiological data and imagery. The system generally consists of patient tracking and scheduling, result reporting and image tracking capabilities...
(RIS) and Hospital Information SystemsHospital information systemThere are various titles and acronyms which all declare similar approaches to managing the information flow and storage in hospital routine services, as*Hospital Information System , or*Healthcare Information System, or...
(HIS) - Digital image acquisition
- Image processingImage processingIn electrical engineering and computer science, image processing is any form of signal processing for which the input is an image, such as a photograph or video frame; the output of image processing may be either an image or, a set of characteristics or parameters related to the image...
and enhancement - Image data compressionData compressionIn computer science and information theory, data compression, source coding or bit-rate reduction is the process of encoding information using fewer bits than the original representation would use....
- 3D visualization and multimediaMultimediaMultimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which use only rudimentary computer display such as text-only, or...
- Speech recognitionSpeech recognitionSpeech recognition converts spoken words to text. The term "voice recognition" is sometimes used to refer to recognition systems that must be trained to a particular speaker—as is the case for most desktop recognition software...
- Computer-aided diagnosisComputer-aided diagnosisComputer-aided detection and computer-aided diagnosis are procedures in medicine that assist doctors in the interpretation of medical images. Imaging techniques in X-ray, MRI, and Ultrasound diagnostics yield a great deal of information, which the radiologist has to analyze and evaluate...
(CAD). - Imaging facilities design
- Imaging vocabularies and ontologiesOntologyOntology is the philosophical study of the nature of being, existence or reality as such, as well as the basic categories of being and their relations...
- Data miningData miningData mining , a relatively young and interdisciplinary field of computer science is the process of discovering new patterns from large data sets involving methods at the intersection of artificial intelligence, machine learning, statistics and database systems...
from medical images databaseDatabaseA database is an organized collection of data for one or more purposes, usually in digital form. The data are typically organized to model relevant aspects of reality , in a way that supports processes requiring this information...
s - Transforming the Radiological Interpretation Process (TRIP)
- DICOM, HL7 and other standards
- WorkflowWorkflowA workflow consists of a sequence of connected steps. It is a depiction of a sequence of operations, declared as work of a person, a group of persons, an organization of staff, or one or more simple or complex mechanisms. Workflow may be seen as any abstraction of real work...
and process modelingProcess modelingThe term process model is used in various contexts. For example, in business process modeling the enterprise process model is often referred to as the business process model. Process models are core concepts in the discipline of process engineering....
and process simulationProcess simulationProcess simulation is used for the design, development, analysis, and optimization of technical processes and is mainly applied to chemical plants and chemical processes, but also to power stations, and similar technical facilities.- Main principle :... - Quality assuranceQuality AssuranceQuality assurance, or QA for short, is the systematic monitoring and evaluation of the various aspects of a project, service or facility to maximize the probability that minimum standards of quality are being attained by the production process...
- Archive integrity and security
- TeleradiologyTeleradiologyTeleradiology is the transmission of radiological patient images, such as x-rays, CTs, and MRIs, from one location to another for the purposes of sharing studies with other radiologists and physicians. Teleradiology is a growth technology given that imaging procedures are growing approximately 15%...
- Radiology informatics educationEducationEducation in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
- Digital imagingDigital imagingDigital imaging or digital image acquisition is the creation of digital images, typically from a physical scene. The term is often assumed to imply or include the processing, compression, storage, printing, and display of such images...
Training
Radiologists who wish to pursue sub-specialty training in this field can undergo fellowship training in Imaging Informatics. Medical Imaging Informatics Fellowships are done after completion of Board Certification in Diagnostic Radiology, and may be pursued concurrently with other sub-specialty radiology fellowships.The American Board of Imaging Informatics (ABII) also administers a certification examination for Imaging Informatics Professionals.