A method for displaying a medical image comprises selecting a point in a medical image, creating a panoramic digital image by propagating a plurality of rays from said selected point, wherein said panoramic digital image comprises a plurality of pixels, each pixel being associated with one of the propagated rays, wherein the value associated with each pixel is computed by integrating an opacity value associated with each point in the image along the path of each ray through the image, wherein the integration of the opacity value is terminated once a threshold value is reached, and viewing said panoramic digital image in an interactive display application. The interactive display application enables the view to zoom and pan the image, as well as changing orientation. The panoramic digital image can be incorporated into a patient medical record and stored in a database.