Multimedia lives with images; medical images are born from digital imaging. A physician's multimedia workstation cannot exist without tools for manipulating images, performing measurements and, generally speaking, extracting and collecting pieces of information from the available data. Image analysis and computer vision constitute a wide and rapidly evolving field. This paper is intended as an introductory document for medical imaging researchers and practitioners wishing an overview of recent developments and trends. The major lines of activities in the domain are presented, under the common framework of a processing pipeline. After a presentation of the various stages of this pipeline, current subjects of research are indicated.