Unimage, a new RIS for the DIOGENE 2 environment at Geneva Cantonal University Hospital

The effective management of a radiology department depends on adequate computing tools for imaging specialists--radiologists and technicians--and administrators. The rapid evolution of imaging techniques in radiology requires flexible systems for describing the daily operation of a service and accessing data generated by every possible source. In order to compensate for the insufficiencies of our current radiology information system (RIS), and within the framework of the migration towards the DIOGENE 2 hospital information system, a new RIS, named Unimage, has been implemented at the Cantonal University Hospital of Geneva. Unimage has been designed not only to fit the current and future needs of the radiology department, but also to operate in different services, i.e. diagnostic radiology, nuclear medicine and therapy radiology. Among its functionalities, Unimage offers a simple two-way data communication with the PACS world. The technical choices we have made in the design of the new RIS include a distributed environment, as well as a graphical (X/Motif) user interface. The main functionalities and the technical implementation of Unimage are described in this paper.