A generic approach to the management of time-related signals and images in medicine.

A framework concept for design and implementation of medical workstations is described by (a) its underlying principles, (b) the handlers provided by the concept, (c) the available data structures and (d) the graphical user interface (GUI). The design principle takes care of a modular approach both for the framework and for the applications. The GUI provides a coherent look and feel for applications based on toolkits for displaying data objects and application control. The data handler allows management of n-dimensional data matrices in a multi-vendor environment, whereas the parameter handler takes care of the data object description. An implementation of a medical workstation exploiting the framework concept is presented.