An open strategy for implementing PACS and its primary application

The strategy for implementing PACS in China is currently hospital-oriented, that causes difficulties of transferring patients among hospitals and sharing patients' images and other case information among doctors. To overcome such shortcomings, an open strategy, which is patient-oriented, was presented. In the open strategy, connections among all the hospitals could be established through Internet by image center, and patient-oriented mechanism also covers the courses of image archiving and other case information management, that would make the limited resources of experienced doctors sharable among all the patients effectively. Moreover, the security, authenticity and validity of patients' images and other case information could be guaranteed better than before. A primary application on probation of PACS implemented with such an open strategy, which was put into practice in China, was also presented. According to the results, the open strategy could extend the application area of PACS from large hospitals to small ones and expedite building of electrical hospitals in China.