Healthcare information systems evolution

HEALTHCARE INFORMATION SYSTEMS EVOLUTION

History and Evolution of Digital Imaging Technology in Health Care

Digital imaging technology plays a major role in contemporary health care , both as a tool in primary diagnosis and as a guide for surgical and therapeutic procedures . Besides gains over analog techniques concerning the image acquisition phase , such as possibility of dose reduction with no over- or under-exposure problems , the main motivation behind digital imaging is to exploit the advantages of digital storage and communication technology . Digital data can be easily archived stored and retrieved quickly and

reliably , used in more than one location at a time , do not suffer from aging and moreover are suited to image post-processing operations . One of the most important innovations not only in digital imaging technology , but in the medicine field as well , is the X-ray technology

X-ray imaging was the first diagnostic imaging technology , and scholars claim that X-ray technology was invented accidentally in 1895 . Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen was a professor of physics at the University of Wurzberg in Germany . He was doing experiments with a cathode ray tube when he noticed that a fluorescent screen on the other side of the room was glowing (Green and Bowie , 2004 . Because Roentgen knew that the cathode rays could travel only a short distance outside the cathode tube in the air , he knew he was observing a new phenomenon , an unknown ray , which he identified as an x ' ray , noting the unknown in mathematics . This accidental discovery by Roentgen has impacted most human beings in the course of their lives . For the health care sector , this discovery has led to more effective diagnostics , X-ray technology gave physicians a powerful too , that for the first time , permitted accurate diagnosis of a wide variety of diseases and injuries

X-ray is a form of electromagnetic radiation capable of penetrating solids . The penetration capability is higher in soft tissue than in hard and this difference can be registered on photographic film . This basic method of X-ray was quite sufficient for the examination of broken bones or punctured lungs , but the use of X-ray as a diagnostic instrument was increased by replacing the photographic film with a light sensitive electronic device combined with a capability for amplifying the signals Initially , x-rays were used to diagnose bone fractures and dislocations and in the process , x-ray machines became commonplace in most urban hospitals . Separate departments of radiology were established , and their influence spread to other departments throughout the hospital . By the 1930s , x-ray visualization of practically all organ systems of the body had been made possible through the use of barium salts and a wide variety of radiopaque materials (Green and Bowie , 2004

Through this development , it became possible to convert the X-ray beam to analog electronic signals , which could be presented on a television screen . In many respects the technology of image amplifying resembled television technology . By employing electronics it became possible to decrease the energy in the X-ray beam and thus to reduce the exposure to...