Imaging and graphics in medicine: concept of an object-oriented platform for clinical research.

We present a workstation-based research platform with two major components. A turnkey application system provides a functionality kernel for a broad community of clinical users with an interest in digital imaging. A development toolbox allows efficient implementation of research ideas and consistent integration of new applications with the common framework of the turnkey system. The platform is based on an elaborate object class structure describing objects for image processing, computer graphics, study handling and user interface control. Thus expertise of computer scientists familiar with this application domain is brought into the hospital and can be readily used by clinical researchers.