If you scan a file, or upload your faxes into Synapse, then these files can be several Mbs in size. There is thus an appreciable delay in viewing them as the whole file needs to be downloaded first before it can be viewed in the browser. I am considering convertiing multipage tifs to jpgs to speed up the download process. So when you ask for a file, you get the first page as a jpg, and the other pages download in the background. Of course the resolution won't be as good as the original, so there will be an option to download the original if you need to send it to someone or print it off. PNG gives a better image than JPG, but JPG is significantly smaller file size.
This is proving a little tricky. I was using Imagemagick to make the low resolution jpgs from the tif faxes, but IM would sometimes use 100s of Mbs of ram, and also tie up the CPU to 100%. Going to try something else....
Now this is working, there's a possibility of drawing on the images as a quick way of messaging ... Going to think more about this.
I can stamp some preset text on the image rather than go the whole way of drawing ... but what then? So, the workflow is like this. The fax arrives in the inbox. Front desk sees it and forwards it unchanged to the doc. The doc sees it, and annotates it or just files it. If they annotate it for action, I guess a message is sent with the image attached to the relevant staff member.
New workflow Fax arrives in Fax Inbox Reception uses auto-recognitionto find the patient, or, opens the image to look at it. Reception then forwards the fax to staff, or deals with it themselves Staff sees fax in Inbox. Opens it in the fax viewer ( JPEG thumbnails ) Clicks on a button to stamp the action required on the image Selects a reception person, and sends a message to reception with the image attached. Staff then clicks on "File"
I am doing some work on making thumbs of pdfs as well ... trouble is, some of the jpgs are larger than the original PDF! Still creating jpgs means I can display them inside Synapse as opposed to using the browser.
At present the default behaviour is that if the original file is in the local cache, it will displayed via the browser. However, I am forming the opinion that we should always display the thumbnail/low res images instead, and only show the originals on request. This is because for the most part you don't need to view hi-fidelity images.... opinions anyone?
If you want to ink and fax a jpg, it maybe that you want a higher resolution image. I might offer an option for that as wll.
Looks like I need to have a way of creating line wrap, or perhaps choose a different font size. Also when faxing ... assign the fax to a dummy patient or general office
