Using web services as functional-level plug ins for interactive 3D medical visualisation

Web services provide remote access to distributed resources and processes through uniform interfaces. However, the latency associated with data transmission has meant that they are generally applied to non-interactive data processing. Interactive applications, in which many more user interactions and data transmissions are involved, are difficult to adapt to web service based frameworks, particularly if the interactive investigation involves large datasets. In medical imaging and visualisation, user interactions are generally a prerequisite for the detailed study and manipulation of data. As a result of major scientific initiatives, such as the Virtual Physiological Human, in which large data repositories are being set up at a variety of sites, it is becoming increasingly common for the data being investigated to be stored on a remote server. Consequently, it is now highly desirable to develop a means by which web service based interactive visualisation can be applied to distributed medical data access and clinical collaboration. This paper presents a functional-level plug-in based architecture for interactive data visualisation via web services which is being implemented within the EC-funded ContraCancrum project.