Demystifying radiology information systems

Selecting the right radiology information system (RIS) can be a difficult and tedious task for radiology managers. Sometimes the information systems department ends up selecting the RIS. As a radiology manager, you can help yourself and your department greatly by becoming more educated concerning the technology and terminology of radiology information systems. You can then participate in one of the most important decisions that will ever be made regarding your department. There is much confusion about the meanings of the terms interfaced and integrated. Two applications are generally considered integrated if they freely access and update each other's databases. Two applications are generally considered interfaced if they pass data to each other but don't directly access nor update the other's databases. Two more terms are centralized and decentralized. Centralized is the concept of "putting all of your eggs in one basket." Decentralization means you spread your resources out. The main difference between centralized and decentralized is that all components of a centralized system share the same fate (good or bad), while decentralized components operate independently and aren't affected directly by failures in another system. Another significant term relevant to RIS systems is HL7, which is a standardized data format that allows one application to pass data to another application in a format that the receiving application understands. RIS vendors generally fall in three categories: single-source vendors, multiproduct vendors and single-product vendors. Single-product vendors include best-of-breed vendors. No one approach is necessarily better than the others; which you choose will depend on your needs. When considering the purchase of an RIS system, there are important questions to ask yourself, the vendor and the vendors' customers as you gather information and prepare to make a decision.