How to Author MIRC
Teaching Files
Medical Imaging Resource Center
MIRC 2004 infoRAD Courses




How to Set Up a System for Teaching
Files, Conferences, and Clinical Trials.
How to Author MIRC Teaching Files
MIRC Case Studies: Using MIRC
Software for Education and Research
Web Classroom Sessions
Today’s Outline




“Brief” Overview of MIRC 2004.
MIRC Concepts and Lexicon.
Overview of the Authoring process.
Questions
Brief Survey!



Who has used MIRC to
access cases/information?
Who has a MIRC site at
their institution/practice?
Who has tried authoring a
teaching file case for a
MIRC?
What is a MIRC????
Medical
Imaging
Resource
Center
MIRC Concepts




MIRC is an RSNA sponsored initiative.
A continual work in progress.
Built in the spirit of the open-source community.
The key technical concepts:



MIRC is a community of cooperating libraries
on the Internet.
The libraries cooperate by supporting a
common query mechanism.
The query mechanism allows users to find
information wherever it is stored.
MIRC Objective


MIRC objectives reach beyond TF.
Support the production, storage, indexing
and distribution of medical imaging
resources:
Teaching files
 Scientific & technical documentation
 Research images & datasets
 Clinical trials data

MIRC supports all information
storage formats.
 Images:
DICOM, GIF, JPEG, PNG
 Hyperlinks to other web content.
 Virtually any content that is
displayable in a web browser.
 Pointers to other files for
downloading.
The MIRC Schemas

MIRCdocument
Format for documents on the RSNA site.
 Format for Index Cards on the RSNA site.


MIRCquery & MIRCqueryresponse


Format for communication between Query
Services and Storage Service Indexes.
MIRCsiteindex

Format for remote site indexing.
MIRC Server Components

Query Service



An entry point into the MIRC community for a
user on the Internet.
Creates/transmits using MIRCquery schema.
Storage Service




A cooperating information library.
Index: the library’s card catalog.
Server: the library’s shelves.
Responds to MIRCquery using the
MIRCqueryresponse schema.
MIRC SITES
MIRC site A
User
Query
Service
RSNA site
Index
Server
Internet
Index
MIRC site B
Index
Index
Server
Server
Server
MIRC site C
Query Form
Standard Query Results
MIRC Author Service




Authoring requires assembling images and text
to submit to MIRC storage service.
Old Method - Used a client side java app called
MIRCat installed on client.
New Method – Requires a web browser only to
assemble and edit content.
New file cabinet feature


Upload content to a personal file cabinet.
Select images from cabinet to populate into
document.
Types of MIRC Documents

Select from four default
templates in MIRC Author
Service to help you build
content:
Standard teaching file template
 Page-format document template
 Tab-format document template
 Tab-format document template
option 2

MIRC Teaching File Display
Page Display
Tabbed Display
Guidelines




The document types can be modified, that
is, elements can be added or subtracted.
The document types provide basic
structure to your content.
Decide which document type to use
depending on the content type.
Pick the suitable display format for your
content.
Viewing Document in a
Browser




Once you save the case, you can open it by
searching the server.
If you need to make changes, do so and
resave the document.
If you need to delete the case, you can do so
by going to the “document” tab after opening
the case.
Remember, you can re-open old
submissions, make changes and resubmit
the case
Enough Talk!!! How do we
Author???
Before We Make Our
First Case….
We need to populate our
personal file cabinet with
images
Adding Images

…OR…

Zip multiple images and send to the file
cabinet.

…OR…

Store all images in the file cabinet.
Then…
RSNA Forum





A lot more is to come.
Feedback from YOU is essential!
http://forums.rsna.org/
Please become part of the MIRC
community by using the MIRC forum
Please provide feedback!