title: A pragmatic discussion on establishing a multicenter digital imaging network.
abstract: Multicenter clinical trials for therapy evaluation of rare diseases are necessary. A digital imaging network improves the ability to share information between collaborating institutions for adrenoleukodystrophy. The DICOM 3.0 standard is used to move images over the Internet from contributing sites to the central clinical database and on to the reviewing physicians' workstations. Patient confidentiality and data integrity are ensured during transmission using virtual private network technology. Fifteen sites are participating in the network. Of these sites, 6 use the proposed protocol. The other 9 sites have either security policy issues or technical considerations that dictate alternative protocols. Network infrastructure, Internet access, image management practices, and security policies vary significantly between sites. Successful implementation of a multicenter digital imaging network requires flexibility in the implementation of network connectivity. Flexibility increases participation as well as complexity of the network.
authors.affiliation: ISIS Center, Georgetown University, Washington DC 20007, USA. Ingeholm@georgetown.edu
authors.forename: Mary Lou
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Ingeholm
authors.forename: Betty A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Levine
authors.forename: Seyed Ali
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Fatemi
authors.forename: And Hugo W
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Moser
mesh_terms: D000326:Adrenoleukodystrophy; D003195:Computer Communication Networks; D016494:Computer Security; D003219:Confidentiality; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D015337:Multicenter Studies as Topic