A user-centered cooperative information system for medical imaging diagnosis

• Published in: Journal of the American Society for Information Science Vol. 49; no. 9; pp. 810 - 816
• Main Authors: Gómez, Enrique J., Quiles, José A., Sanz, Marcos F., del Pozo, Francisco
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, D.C Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company 01.07.1998; American Documentation Institute; Wiley Periodicals Inc
• Subjects: Access to Information; Angiocardiography; Angiography; Bandwidth; Computer Mediated Communication; Computer supported cooperative work; Computer System Design; Cooperation; Cooperative Programs; Cooperative work; Data acquisition; Data base management systems; Design; Diagnosis; Feedback; Human-computer interaction; Image databases; Imaging; Information Sources; Information Systems; Interactive computer systems; Interpersonal communication; Medical Imaging; Medicine; Online Systems; Optimization; Semantics; Systems analysis; Task analysis; Telemedicine; Usability; User friendly systems; User interface; User interfaces; Wide area networks
• ISSN: 0002-8231; 1097-4571
• DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1097-4571(199807)49:9<810::AID-ASI6>3.0.CO;2-P

Computer‐supported cooperative work (CSCW) is one of the most promising technologies aimed to assist medical users located in different clinical sites to access distributed medical imaging information. This article presents a cooperative information system intended for remote medical imaging diagnosis. The main general CSCW problems addressed here are as follows: (1) At a conceptual level: The definition of a procedure for the design of user‐centered cooperative systems; and (2) at a technological level: The improvement of user feedback and the optimization of the communication bandwidth in highly interactive CSCW applications for remote access to medical image databases. These technological goals are achieved by developing two main components: A CSCW distributed architecture for synchronous cooperative work and a DICOM medical image database management system. A cooperative system in the field of cardiac angiography images has allowed us to test and validate the user‐centered design procedures and the CSCW architectures implemented. Finally, a discussion of experience of the user‐centered design and of the implementation of cooperative information systems is also presented. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.