Picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) for medical application

The term 'Picture Archiving and Communication Systems' (PACS) applies to networks of digital image modalities, image workstations and mass image stores connected among each other by image data communication structures and controlled by appropriate image and data management. Predominantly, PACS are intended for application in the medical imaging domain, particularly in hospitals, where, by completely replacing the currently used films, they are supposed to lead to the 'filmless radiology'. The development of PACS is still one of the challenging tasks in the computer engineering field, because the giant amounts of digital image data produced in medical diagnostics require the introduction of novel architectures and technologies. This article describes the key components of PACS. Typical user environments are analysed and the requirements on the performance of the elements of a PACS are defined. The bottlenecks of current technologies are evaluated and examples of advanced approaches to PACS networks, archive modules and image workstations are given.