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It has been recognized early on that digitizing medical information makes diagnostic technology more advanced and efficient. In order to convert image information, which comprises the majority of all medical information, into digital data, various technologies including those for input, processing, transmission storage, and display need to develop at roughly the same pace. To data, there have been few cases where this has been done. However, recent major advances in high-resolution image input/output, image encoding, super-fast transmission, high-capacity storage, and other technologies have intensified the drive towards digitizing and networking all medical information. This paper will show that the spread of super-high-speed networks capable of transmitting large amounts of data in a short time is indispensable for accurate medical diagnosis, and that this will make it possible to realize an integrated medical information syste. A target application for the medical image diagnosis of the Super High Definition imags being developed by the authors of this paper is telepathology, which particularly demands high-quality images. In this paper, we will study, among other things, the concrete issues crucial to building and networking a digital system and the approach to resolving such issues. We will also report on the building of our experimental system that fulfills such demands as well as discuss a pathological microscopic image transmission system with image quality that will not lower diagnostic accuracy and fast response and good operability that will not make diagnosticians feel impatient. Finally, we will discuss a test in which we remotely operated a microscope over an ATM line to prove that it is possible to capture, transmit, and display a still super-high-definition digital image with a resolution of 2,048 X 2,048 pixels in about 5 seconds.
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