Multimedia Biomedical Database Tools for Digital X-rays

In this paper we describe two projects at the Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications of the National Library of Medicine. The first project is a digital atlas for the interpretation of osteoarthritic conditions in the cervical and lumbar spines, using methodology developed by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS). The goal of the atlas project is to provide a standard digital reference tool for interpretation of this class of x-ray images, and a computer-based tool for medical education in radiology and rheumatology. The second project is a system for dissemination of national health survey data, including both text and digitized images, in a plagorm-independent manner using the World Wide Web. The goal of this second project, called WebMIRS, is to provide wide access to important sets of national health survey data to the epidemiological community, to rheumatologist and radiologist researchers interested in the image data, and to medical educators.