An evolvable software framework for an Internet-based telediagnostic system

This paper describes a software architecture framework for an Internet-based telediagnostic system, whose key feature is an evolvable architecture. The system consists of three tiers. The front tier is a thin client, such as an Internet browser, where the user can view medical images stored on a remote host, draw regions of interest, and write image-related notes, which can be saved in a remote database. The middle tier, which is designed according to the model-view-controller object design model, resides on an application server and it is where the main logic of the system is executed, such as computation of image features. The end tier is the database server where images, computed image features, and user notes are kept. It is the design of the middle tier that uses XML, as a configuration and deployment tool, in addition to Java reflection that makes our framework evolvable. A specific implementation is provided for an application that uses Java Server Pages and Enterprise JavaBeans, and computes texture features of CT lung images.