A dependency-based startup method for a multi-modality medical processing system, the method comprising the steps performed by a system controller: receiving initialization information about a plurality of executable components to be started during a startup sequence of the multi-modality medical processing system, the plurality of executable components including an executable modality component configured to communicate with a medical sensing device communicatively coupled to the multi-modality medical processing system; receiving dependency information about the executable modality component, the dependency information identifying one or more of the executable components upon which the executable modality component depends; transforming the initialization information and the dependency information into a dependency map that represents the dependencies between the plurality of executable components; deriving a start order for the plurality of executable components based on the dependency map, wherein the one or more executable components upon which the executable modality component depends come before the executable modality component in the start order; starting the plurality of executable components in the multi-modality medical processing system according to the start order; detecting whether medical sensing devices associated with executable components are communicatively coupled to the processing system and whether such devices are in working order and if they are available to acquire medical sensing data; detecting whether executable components associated with medical sensing devices are responsive to medical sensing data received from the medical sensing devices; and restarting non-responsive executable components. receiving initialization information about a plurality of executable components to be started during a startup sequence of the multi-modality medical processing system, the plurality of executable components including an executable modality component configured to communicate with a medical sensing device communicatively coupled to the multi-modality medical processing system; receiving dependency information about the executable modality component, the dependency information identifying one or more of the executable components upon which the executable modality component depends; transforming the initialization information and the dependency information into a dependency map that represents the dependencies between the plurality of executable components; deriving a start order for the plurality of executable components based on the dependency map, wherein the one or more executable components upon which the executable modality component depends come before the executable modality component in the start order; starting the plurality of executable components in the multi-modality medical processing system according to the start order; detecting whether medical sensing devices associated with executable components are communicatively coupled to the processing system and whether such devices are in working order and if they are available to acquire medical sensing data; detecting whether executable components associated with medical sensing devices are responsive to medical sensing data received from the medical sensing devices; and restarting non-responsive executable components.