A method for uniquely identifying digital images, comprising: receiving, from a client device, a digital image being visually observed and a first request, in electronic format, for electronically formatted first data associated with the digital image; generating a first key for the digital image, wherein the first key uniquely identifies the digital image; comparing the first key with at least one of previously or on the fly generated keys for images stored in an image database, wherein the previously or on the fly generated keys uniquely identify the images stored in the database and are paired with a first value and first data, where the value is an address to a location of data associated with the image and/or the actual associated data; identifying a second key of the previously or on the fly generated keys that exactly matches the first key, within a predetermined tolerance; retrieving the first value paired with the second key, in response to the exact match; retrieving the first data associated with the digital image based on the first value; and returning, to the client device, the retrieved first data; and characterized in that the step of generating a key for the digital image, comprises: sampling the digital image using a predetermined sampling pattern, in which the sampled data includes an electronic compressed representation of the digital image, while the sampling pattern identifies which pixels will be sampled and in what order; and identifying the sampling pattern from a plurality of different sampling patterns based on one or more of an imaging modality, such as, but not limited to, computed tomography, positron resonance imaging, single photon emission computer tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, X-ray and ultrasound, that generated the digital image and an anatomical region represented in the digital image, such that the resulting key is unique to that image and reproducible. receiving, from a client device, a digital image being visually observed and a first request, in electronic format, for electronically formatted first data associated with the digital image; generating a first key for the digital image, wherein the first key uniquely identifies the digital image; comparing the first key with at least one of previously or on the fly generated keys for images stored in an image database, wherein the previously or on the fly generated keys uniquely identify the images stored in the database and are paired with a first value and first data, where the value is an address to a location of data associated with the image and/or the actual associated data; identifying a second key of the previously or on the fly generated keys that exactly matches the first key, within a predetermined tolerance; retrieving the first value paired with the second key, in response to the exact match; retrieving the first data associated with the digital image based on the first value; and returning, to the client device, the retrieved first data; and characterized in that the step of generating a key for the digital image, comprises: sampling the digital image using a predetermined sampling pattern, in which the sampled data includes an electronic compressed representation of the digital image, while the sampling pattern identifies which pixels will be sampled and in what order; and identifying the sampling pattern from a plurality of different sampling patterns based on one or more of an imaging modality, such as, but not limited to, computed tomography, positron resonance imaging, single photon emission computer tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, X-ray and ultrasound, that generated the digital image and an anatomical region represented in the digital image, such that the resulting key is unique to that image and reproducible. sampling the digital image using a predetermined sampling pattern, in which the sampled data includes an electronic compressed representation of the digital image, while the sampling pattern identifies which pixels will be sampled and in what order; and identifying the sampling pattern from a plurality of different sampling patterns based on one or more of an imaging modality, such as, but not limited to, computed tomography, positron resonance imaging, single photon emission computer tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, X-ray and ultrasound, that generated the digital image and an anatomical region represented in the digital image, such that the resulting key is unique to that image and reproducible.