Web-based viewing of picture archiving and communications systems images--Part II: The effect of compression on speed of transmission.

Now that picture archiving and communications systems (PACS) has matured, our challenge is to make the images available to the referring physician and, in a teaching institution, to make these images available for conferences and rounding. One solution is the distribution of the images using web-based technology. We investigated a web-based add-on to our PACS to determine the characteristics of the personal computer that will make this technology useful and affordable. We found that images can be viewed easily through a web-based system. We found that the optimal system to view these images at a reasonable speed and a reasonable cost is on with a medium-range processor (200 to 300 MHz) and a large amount of inexpensive RAM, at least 64 Mb.