Feature

From Electronic Images to Computer-assisted Diagnosis in Medicine

Robert F. Wagner

Electronic imaging has been commonplace in the practice of real-time radiology (fluoroscopy) since the late 1950s. The onset of the digital revolution of the 1970s, however, radically broadened the spectrum of electronic possibilities. Two new modalities emerged—computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)—and have dramatically affected the medical management of most of us in the adult patient population. Nuclear medicine (radio-isotope imaging) and diagnostic ultrasound have undergone more quiet electronic evolution but, sooner or later, will also end up taking new or refined kinds of interior views of most of us, usually at a lower cost.