Collaboration/NWU/Radiology Workstation

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Our clinical workstation integrated with Slicer3's main viewer, under development at Northwestern

Key Investigators

• Northwestern: David S. Channin, Pat Mongkolwat, Skip Talbot, Alex Kogan, Vladimir Kleper
• Isomics: Steve Pieper

Objective

The goal of our project is to be able to use Slicer3's advanced imaging algorithms and 3D functionality from inside a clinical workstation being developed at Northwestern University. We'd also like to reconfigure use of the main viewer for a new way to interact with the volume that might be more efficient for clinical use. Our main objectives to accomplish this goal include:

• Integrate the rendering and functionality of Slicer3 into a .Net foundation GUI for use in a clinical workstation
• Create a new representation of the 3D volume as a cube with an oblique cut plane rather than the default three orthogonal cut planes

Approach, Plan

To implement this integration process, we have taken the following steps:

• Convert Slicer3 into a managed class object
• Extract the renderers through existing accesor methods and add them to managed renderers using a VTK .Net wrapper
• Convert KWWidgets into .Net Controls
• Implement volume cube representation with existing Slicer3 code

Progress

In regards to the steps listed previously, we have made the following progress:

• Slicer3 compiled as a managed dynamically linked library that can be directly integrated into a .Net application
• The renderers and their interactors can be placed into .Net user controls for direct integrated with a .Net GUI
• The basic foundation for converting KWWidgets has been devised, but much work remains. The process involves using a slight change to the KWObject class, and the deriving inherited controls on the .Net side
• The pieces needed to reassemble the 3D Main Viewer are under works, but this part of the project is in its infancy

References

• A Translation Station for Imaging: P. Mongkolwat, T. Lechner, T. Johnson, A. Kogan, S. Talbot, D. S. Channin; Radiological Society of North America, Chicago, IL. November 2006.
• Advancing Advanced Visualization in the Clinical Environment: S. Talbot, P. Mongkolwat, D. S. Channin; Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine (SIIM), Providence, RI, To be presented, June 2007.