PTU - Polskie Towarzystwo Urologiczne
list of articles:

The Internet portal dedicated to urologic ultrasound as a multidisciplinary educational space
Article published in Urologia Polska 2008/61/Supl. 1.

authors

Waldemar Białek, Paweł Michalak, Piotr Penza, Grzegorz Rycaj, Rafał Monkiewicz, Krzysztof Bar, Kamil Muc
Klinika Urologii i Onkologii Urologicznej AM w Lublinie
Polska-Japońska Wyższa Szkoła Technik Komputerowych

summary

Introduction.

Nowadays, sonography is a common imaging modality, appreciated by medical professionals associated with diagnostics and treatment of urologic diseases. Considering present capabilities and excellent perspectives in the future, Internet seems to be an ideal area of communication and exchange of information.

Objectives.

The aim of the project was creation of an Internet portal dedicated to urologic ultrasound as a new multifunctional tool for urologists and other medical professionals (radiologists, oncologists, nephrologists, gynecologists, pathologists, family medicine doctors and other) who support urologists in their everyday practice.

Materials and methods.

The team of programmers planned sophisticated architecture and constructed an upgradeable software project with ASP.NET 2.0 technology according to technical requirements determined by physician. The core element of the project was huge unrestricted database to be operated from the platform of Internet. The main assumption was to create a modern but simple and user friendly portal that is able to cover every aspect of urologic ultrasound (scientific, educational, commercial, social etc.).

Results.

After 8 months of collaborative work of programmers, multimedia experts and physicians internet portal was born on-line. It has got a multimedia data base for case reports (complete descriptions of case stories from anamnesis to follow-up, illustrated with high-quality ultrasound images and videos, corresponding video clip recordings of endoscopic examinations, schemes, radiological and pathological images and reports, literature links etc.) with a unique multimedia browser giving possibility to make adjustments - “tune” images and clips according to user preferences and analyzing videos frame by frame. The portal has got its own discussion forum, a congress calendar, a map of urologic ultrasound centers, service for patients, new technologies page, bookmark for clinical papers, literature reviews, expert opinions, search engine and news subscription unit. The portal is ready to support CME activities (own log-in unit keeping personal data confidential, survey page and scoring system).

Conclusions.

The portal is designed to be an exceptional, powerful and friendly tool for every medical professional who wants to be up-to-date with “the art of urologic ultrasound” and wishes to share his own experiences and opinions with the others.