The proposed framework exploits the DICOM standard representing an enabling technology for an auto-consistent solution in medical diagnostic applications.

Accordingly, the DICOMDIR conceptual data model, defined by a hierarchical structure, is exploited and extended to include the GUI information thanks to a new Information Object Module (IOM), which reuses the DICOM information model.

The proposed workflow is designed for diagnostic workstations with a local file system on an interchange media acting inside or outside the hospital ward. Such a solution provides also a tight integration with the DICOM standard, which considers various aspects of the technology in medicine but does not address GUI specification issues. In this way, the self-configuring GUI is generated on-the-fly, so that just specific functionalities are active according to the current clinical scenario. Specifically, we designed a DICOM based mechanism of data-driven GUI generation, referring to the examined body part and imaging modality as well as to the medical image analysis task to perform. This paper proposes a software framework aimed at addressing the issues outlined before. In clinical environments, a GUI must represent a sequence of steps for image investigation following a well-defined workflow. As a consequence, the physician may be affected by cognitive overload and visual stress causing a degradation of performances, mainly due to unuseful widgets. Nevertheless, the corresponding Graphical User Interface (GUI) widgets are still present on the screen reducing the image visualization area. Unfortunately, some functionalities are specialized for specific diseases or imaging modalities, while other ones are useless for the images under investigation. Computer applications for diagnostic medical imaging provide generally a wide range of tools to support physicians in their daily diagnosis activities.

Dicomdir file structure