Development of the Healthcare support e-Hospital system at the Local Area using digital-watermarking technology

本研究提出了“电子医院”的新概念。我们提出的电子医院通过互联网通信技术，将诊所、医院和患者家庭等分布式医疗资源统一起来。电子医院以低成本提供高质量的综合医疗服务。本文介绍了我国电子医院新开发的基础技术。该电子医院系统处理重要数据和医学图像数据，如CT和MR图像。在患者家中测量的生命数据自动存储在测量设备的“家庭生命服务器”中。存储的重要数据将通过互联网传输到“家庭医生服务器”。医院影像中心也通过互联网将患者的医学影像传输到家庭医生的服务器上。家庭医生服务器自动集成这些患者的生命数据和医学图像。电子医院通过使用我们提出的水印技术为这些数据传输提供了安全的互联网通信。这种水印技术有两个功能。一是将医学图像隐藏在虚拟图像中，防止破解图像服务器。另一种是在医学图像中自动插入版权图像，以保留医学图像的原创性和所有权。采用本文提出的水印技术对医学图像进行了保护。患者一个月的带水印生命数据（6.67kB）通过互联网传输时间约为0.14秒。在相同的传输条件下，一份带水印的CT研究（200slices）的传输时间约为74秒。提取的医学图像具有较好的诊断质量。此外，在电子医院系统中，患者和家庭医生之间可以通过电视摄像机进行自由咨询。患者作为家庭医生在电子医院系统中进行了充分的会诊，感到满意。电子医院不仅要处理医学图像数据，还要处理病人的生命数据。也就是说，这个地区就像一个医院。使用安全的因特网通信的电子医院系统将成为连接患者、家庭医生和医院影像中心的整体患者保健系统。少

This research proposes a new concept called "e-hospital". Our propose e-hospital unites distributed medical resources such as clinic, hospital and patient's home by the Internet communication technologies. The e-hospital provides integrated high quality medical services with low-cost. This paper describes our newly developed fundamental techniques for our e-hospital.This e-hospital system deals with vital data and medical image data such as CT and MR images. The vital data measured at patient's home is automatically stored in "Vital server of the home" from the measurement devices. The stored vital data will be transmitting to "Home doctor's server" via Internet. Hospital imaging center also transmit the patient's medical images to the Home doctor's server via Internet. Home doctor's server integrates these patient's vital data and medical images automatically. The e-hospital provides secured Internet communication for these data transfer by using our proposed watermarking techniques. … More This watermarking technique has two functions. One is to hide the medical image in dummy images for discourage cracking image servers. Another one is for automatically inserting a copyright image into the medical images preserving originality and ownership of the medical images. By using our proposed watermarking technology, medical images are protected.The transmitting time for patient's one-month watermarked vital data (6.67kB) is about 0.14 sec via Internet. And the transmission time of one watermarked CT study (200slices) is about 74 second with the same transmission condition. The extracted medical images possess good quality for physician's diagnosis. Moreover, it is possible to consult freely in e-hospital system through the TV camera between the patient and the home doctor. The patient was satisfied in doing an enough consultation as the home doctor with e-hospital system.The e-hospital deals with not only medical image data but also patient vital data. That is, the region functions as one hospital. The e-hospital system that uses a secured Internet communication becomes a total patient health care system, which connects patients, home doctors, and hospital imaging centers. Less