The present invention provides a medical imaging system 700 comprising a memory 734 for storing machine executable instructions 740, a display 732 for drawing a user interface 800, and a processor 730.By executing the machine executable instruction, the processor receives the three-dimensional medical image data 746 representing the region of interest 709 of the subject 718 (1000).Interest areas include spine 200.By performing the machine executable instructions, the processor further receives a set of vertebral coordinate systems 748, each representing a position and orientation of the vertebra in the three-dimensional medical image data (1002).A set of spinal coordinate systems further includes a set of spinal center line locations 102, each disposed on the spine centerline 108.By executing the machine executable instructions, the processor further receives a mapping 750 between a set of spinal coordinate systems and a simplified coordinate system (1004).A simplified coordinate system includes a spine height 300 representing a position along the spine center line.The simplified coordinate system further includes the rotation direction for the local vertebral orientation.The simplified coordinate system further includes an offset from the spine centroline.By executing the machine executable instruction, the processor further repeatedly receives the simplified coordinate 752 of the simplified coordinate system from the user interface (1006).By executing the machine executable instruction, the processor further calculates the rendering 754 of the spine image (1008).Computing spine image rendering involves mapping a simplified coordinate into a set of vertebral coordinate systems using a mapping to determine an image position in a three-dimensional medical image data.By executing the machine executable instructions, the processor further draws the rendering of the spine image on the display (1010).本発明は、マシン実行可能命令７４０を格納するメモリ７３４、ユーザインタフェース８００を描画するディスプレイ７３２、及びプロセッサ７３０を備える
