This volume contains the proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study
Institute on "Pictorial Information Systems in Medicine" held August
27-September 7, 1984 in Hotel Maritim, Braunlage/Harz, Federal Republic
of Germany. The program committee of the institute consisted of KH Hohne
(Director), G. T Herman, G. S. Lodwick, and D. Meyer-Ebrecht. The
organization was in the hands of Klaus Assmann and Fritz Bocker In the
last decade medical imaging has undergone a rapid development New
imaging modalities such as Computer Tomography (CT), Digital Angiography
(DSA) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) were developed using the
capabilities of modern computers. In a modern hospital these
technologies produce already more then 25% of image data in digital
form. This format lends itself to the design of computer assisted
Information systems Integrating data acquisition, presentation, communi-
cation and archiving for all modalities and users within a department or
even a hospital. Advantages such as rapid access to any archived Image,
synoptic presentation, computer assisted image analysis to name only a
few, are expected. The design of such pictorial information systems,
however, often called PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication Systems)
In the medical community is a non-trivial task involving know-how from
many disciplines such as - Medicine (especially Radiology), - Data Base
Technology, - Computer Graphics, - Man Machine Interaction, - Hardware
Technology and others. Most of these disCiplines are represented by
disjunct scientific communities.