Systems and methods for image handling and presentation

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having a set of instructions for execution on a computing device, the set of instructions executing a method comprising:

• identifying a plurality of image slices in a study stored at a source for transmission and display via a client;
• generating a list of media files including the plurality of image slices and associated layout information for display of the study via the client;
• building a plan, according to the generated list of media files and associated layout information, to transfer the media files to the client workstation for display according to a compression and decompression scheme, the plan coordinated between the source and the client and including a coarse representation of the study to facilitate navigation between the image slices followed by the media files representing the plurality of image slices;
• facilitating transfer of the coarse representation and the list of media files to the client according to the plan;
• and
• adapting the plan based on resource availability.