A preliminary assessment. Digital imaging storage and retrieval in the 1980s

The current status of digital imaging storage and retrieval is described, as applied to both digitally created images and those converted from conventional films. Technologies that are beginning to play a role in digital image management--particularly, different configurations of Picture Archiving and Communications Systems (PACS)--are examined in terms of their stage of development, equipment, and operating costs. This assessment finds that the future success and diffusion of these systems will depend upon the diagnostic adequacy of digital images, improvements in image digitizing processes, and the availability of optical disk or other low-cost mass storage. In addition, the paper concludes that Medicare's prospective payment system will greatly influence the spread of this technology because of both the cost-saving incentives the system will place on health care professionals and the still-undetermined method of capital cost reimbursement.