Design Specifications for a Radiation Oncology Picture Archival and Communication System

The handling of various types of images is an important function in radiotherapy and can be aided significantly by the use of a picture archival and communication system (PACS). The conventional imaging PACS has been well-studies, but the radiotherapy picture archival and communication system (RT-PACS) is relatively unfamiliar to the medical community. While many of the massive data handling requirements of a conventional imaging PACS may not be necessary for an RT-PACS, the RT-PACS must support various image operations that are unique to radiotherapy. This report describes some of the desired functional capabilities of the RT-PACS and the design specifications required to support these capabilities.