The clinical application of a PACS-dependent 12-lead ECG and image information system in E-medicine and telemedicine

J Digit Imaging. 2010 Aug;23(4):501-13. doi: 10.1007/s10278-009-9231-7. Epub 2009 Aug 27.

Abstract

This study presents a software technology to transform paper-based 12-lead electrocardiography (ECG) examination into (1) 12-lead ECG electronic diagnoses (e-diagnoses) and (2) mobile diagnoses (m-diagnoses) in emergency telemedicine. While Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM)-based images are commonly used in hospitals, the development of computerized 12-lead ECG is impeded by heterogeneous data formats of clinically used 12-lead ECG instrumentations, such as Standard Communications Protocol (SCP) ECG and Extensible Markup Language (XML) ECG. Additionally, there is no data link between clinically used 12-lead ECG instrumentations and mobile devices. To realize computerized 12-lead ECG examination procedures and ECG telemedicine, this study develops a DICOM-based 12-lead ECG information system capable of providing clinicians with medical images and waveform-based ECG diagnoses via Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS). First, a waveform-based DICOM-ECG converter transforming clinically used SCP-ECG and XML-ECG to DICOM is applied to PACS for image- and waveform-based DICOM file manipulation. Second, a mobile Structured Query Language database communicating with PACS is installed in physicians' mobile phones so that they can retrieve images and waveform-based ECG ubiquitously. Clinical evaluations of this system indicated the following. First, this developed PACS-dependent 12-lead ECG information system improves 12-lead ECG management and interoperability. Second, this system enables the remote physicians to perform ubiquitous 12-lead ECG and image diagnoses, which enhances the efficiency of emergency telemedicine. These findings prove the effectiveness and usefulness of the PACS-dependent 12-lead ECG information system, which can be easily adopted in telemedicine.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Electrocardiography / methods*
  • Electronic Data Processing / methods
  • Humans
  • Information Storage and Retrieval / methods*
  • Medical Records Systems, Computerized
  • Radiology Information Systems / organization & administration
  • Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted*
  • Software
  • Telecommunications / instrumentation
  • Telemedicine / instrumentation
  • Telemedicine / methods*