Modus operandi for a picture archiving and communication system

The authors describe their 18 month experience operating an all digital nuclear medicine department, which led to the development of a system that allows multiple users to access patient reports and images through terminals located in various parts of the hospital. All user interactions are mediated through protocols that automatically acquire, process, display, and archive data. This approach offers distinct advantages over film and paper methods and is applicable in theory to any digital image format.