Diagnostic Services and Communication Protocols for Remote Nuclear Medicine Laboratories

摘要

A telecommunications system has been designed and implemented which provides diagnostic services to nuclear medicine laboratories established in smaller primary care medical facilities. These remote laboratories are located in areas where nuclear medicine patient services were not previously available because of the lack of trained nuclear physicians. The system provides through the use of computerized data acquisition and telephone data communication capability all routine and specialized imaging procedures with a degree of quality and sophistication normally available only in large urban medical centers. Nuclear image data acquired remotely is transmitted to Saint Louis, Missouri for interpretation by specialists in the Nuclear Medicine Service of the Veterans Administration Medical Center.The functions of hardware and software protocols necessary to assure the correctness and completeness of transmitted data are presented together with essential data descriptors for identification and format.