Applied Radiology Featured Article (Via Radrounds)
Applied Radiology Featured Article (Via Radrounds)
Applied Radiology Featured Article (Via Radrounds)
Chris Hafey
B
ringing advanced visualization As new scanners bring more data to A few years ago, GPUs were available
to the healthcare enterprise the picture archiving and communication only on high-end workstations. Now
offers an incredible opportunity systems (PACS) and to radiologists, they are a standard feature in virtually
to enhance patient care and improve there is an increasing need for advanced every PC. Graphics processing units
efficiency. A goal of this magnitude is visualization, so that the data can be are getting faster and better, with
not without challenges, however. understood and interpreted. There is also advances mainly driven by the gaming
To understand the challenges facing a need to change the way data are han- market. Harnessing this power is key
advanced visualization, it is essential to dled on the back end and presented to the to bringing advanced visualization to
appreciate the rapid rate of change in end-user. the enterprise.
computed tomography (CT) scanner One of the most significant ways to
technology. Next-generation scanners— address these challenges is to transition Volumetric data management
those with >64 slices—represent only a from a sole focus on stand-alone work- To efficiently scale up to the enter-
tiny percentage of the CT market today, stations to enterprise deployment. Ad- prise level and provide the performance
but they are expected to capture an vanced imaging capabilities can be that users expect, it is necessary to stop
increasingly larger market segment in made accessible throughout the enter- handling data on a slice-by-slice basis.
the next few years. prise through a combination of thin- Rather, we must focus on volumetric
The enormous amount of data gen- client, Web-based, and remote-access representation. Volumetric representa-
erated by advanced CT scanners cre- technologies, in addition to traditional tion makes the system more scalable,
ates several issues that must be thick-client workstations. increases its speed, and provides a more
accounted for. First, advanced CT consistent user experience.
enables new applications that weren’t Key components Volumetric data management also
possible before. Second, such applica- There are 5 key components of an influences how data are handled inside
tions are driving the need for enter- effective enterprise-wide advanced visu- the computer itself. A key innovation in
prise-wide access. Third, distribution alization system: advanced technology, the microprocessor industry is the use of
of data and clinical applications to the volumetric data management, partner- multiple cores. Today it is fairly com-
enterprise must be managed more effi- ships, professional services, and per- mon to buy a PC with 2 or 4 cores. In a
ciently than in the past. Otherwise, the formance. few years, computers may have 64 or
data boom will overwhelm healthcare 128 cores. Through the use of optimized
networks. Advanced technology multicore algorithms, advanced visual-
Several core technologies enable dis- ization and volumetric imaging can har-
Mr. Hafey is Chief Architect, Vital tribution of advanced visualization to ness the power of multicore technology
Images, Minnetonka, MN. the enterprise. The first is graphics pro- as part of a volumetric data manage-
cessing unit (GPU)-based rendering. ment strategy.