Digital Medicine

Imagine going to the hospital emergency room knowing that something serious inside you is wrong, but you do not know what. When you get to the hospital, they have no way to look inside to find the problem. X-ray doesn’t exist, CAT-scan doesn’t exist, MRI doesn’t exist. The only thing they can do is surgery. That will likely mean an expensive overnight stay, even if they don’t find anything serious.

Digital imaging to the rescue. The ability for medical personnel to take pictures of what is inside you without cutting you open is a medical marvel. Since the X-ray came into existence diagnosis and treatment has improved a hundredfold. Even more incredible are the advances made since digital imaging and computer technology have been brought together in medicine.

X-rays were accidentally discovered in 1895 by Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen in Germany while he was experimenting with his cathode ray generator. One week after he discovered that the rays could penetrate different materials, he took the first X-ray of a human body, his wife’s hand. X-rays are two-dimensional images of the body.

In 1972 the CAT-scan (computerized axial tomography scanner) was developed. It took multiple x-ray images and put them together to produce a 3-dimensional image of the tissues and organs in the body. About that same time, the MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) was developed. This also produced 3-dimensional images, but didn’t use harmful radioactivity to produce the images.

With digital images from these technologies, the medical industry has been able to produce incredible images of the body. Diagnosis and treatment has been improved by allowing physicians to better understand the depth and size of tumors, foreign objects, or other problems that plague their patients. Surgery is more precise as the surgeon is able to better locate problems.

Digital imaging is also being combined with ultrasonic technologies to produce instant, non-tissue damaging, moving images. The most well-known use for this technology is in the field of obstetrics when gathering information about the unborn fetus. Here, the physician can determine the size and position of the baby with no incisions.

Image technology has also allowed the use of real-time images from inside the body that allows physicians to not only diagnose, but perform minimally invasive surgery. Instead of making large incisions so the surgeon can peek inside the body, very small openings are made that allow a small robotic camera to be inserted. The images are immediately displayed on a computer. Surgical procedures are performed by inserting instruments through other small incisions and then manipulated by the surgeon. Because such small incisions are made, patients often heal much quicker and costs are greatly reduced.

Remote diagnosis saves thousands of dollars. People in the remote islands of the Pacific have a high incidence of rheumatic fever which occasionally results in valvular heart disease. Because of their location, diagnosis is difficult. They would normally have to travel to distant islands for diagnosis and treatment. However, with remote digital echocardiography, images of the patients heart and valves are transmitted to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio for evaluation. This saves patients a great deal of money and time.

What does the future hold? As imaging rapidly develops, the millions and millions of images being gathered need to be managed. Those images need to be kept organized and made available as quickly and easily as possible. Systems known as Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS) are being developed to do just that. Physicians and key medical personnel are able to view and share records and images from computers anywhere in the world quickly and easily.

Remote robotic surgery is a real possibility. Imagine a surgeon performing surgery on a hologram while a robot, thousands of miles away, follows his guidance and operates on a real human.