MR Platform 2.0

Abstract

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Systems are complex medical diagnostic ma- chines having components such as the magnet, gradient coils, shim coils, etc. These components are managed by a computer, which also hosts the applications and ser- vices required to use the system. These applications and services should reliable, accurate and should work in real-time, as a small mistake may have life-threatening implications. This project report describes the development of a distributed mes- saging framework to be used by MR applications to communicate on a distributed platform, as well as a set of tools used to improve the efficiency, reliability, and pre- dictability of the system. A typical MRI system contains a wide array of processes and services, which re- quire inter-communication. The distributed messaging framework is a middleware that enables message-based communication among different platforms (Linux-based, Windows, VSWorks) and technologies(C++/C# Applications, Web Applications). It provides a an efficient, reliable and error-resilient solution and provides REQUEST- RESPONSE, ROUTER-DEALER (Asynchronous) and PUBLISH-SUBSCRIBE com- munication modes. Philips has a huge portfolio of MRI systems, which include 40+ releases supporting 800+ configurations. Philips currently provides support for around 34 releases, has around 12 products in production and around 5 products are under development. Maintaining such a huge number of releases and configurations is an uphill task. This project report also describes a set of tools created to simplify and automate certain aspects of installation and updation, and configuration, as well as to perform system analysis and generate reports indicating vital system parameters and gauge the health of system components and resources, with the basic aim to ameliorate the current arduous and time consuming systems in place.