Multipurpose software utility to provide access to medical images

Using computer aided instruction (CAI) seems to make sense, although only few serious evaluations exist. Even if CAI turns out to be not as effective as other forms of teaching, once installed it is rather inexpensive and may save physicians time and resources. Adding medical images from already available sources such as medical slides to educational programs can improve acceptance by the students and quality of teaching. The acquisition of images is time consuming and involves possible technical pitfalls but can be done successfully using dedicated hardware and software tools. A dedicated program (image database) for image analysis and cataloging was created that could also link the images medical contents with the dictionary of the expert system Iliad. An enhanced version of Iliad was successfully tested at a German University Hospital with students at their final year of education The resulting image database can additionally function as an image knowledge server for various other purposes, such as a WWW image server or other medical expert systems.