Current developments in departmental PACS for ultrasound

Area of Science:

• Medical Informatics
• Radiology Information Systems

Background:

• Departmental PACS are image management systems tailored to specific modalities or applications.
• They facilitate image acquisition, specialized display, distribution, and local storage.
• Departmental PACS can operate independently or as components within a larger distributed Radiology PACS.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design a Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) that functions as a standalone unit or a departmental subnet.
• To enable operation in local or wide-area network environments.
• To provide a cost-effective implementation using current technologies.

Main Methods:

• Developed UltraPACS as a suite of separable UNIX processes using a message-passing client-server model.
• Hosted the application on a Digital Equipment Corporation PC with an Intel microprocessor.
• Utilized NEXTSTEP as the UNIX variant for its object-orientation and development tools.

Main Results:

• Departmental PACS require in-depth knowledge of clinical practice and workflow.
• Optimization necessitates physician user involvement for modality-specific display systems.
• Flexible architectures and open communication interfaces are crucial for integration with other systems and electronic medical records.

Conclusions:

• A departmental approach to PACS offers significant advantages over monolithic systems.
• Benefits include optimization for specific clinical practices, cost-effectiveness, and phased implementation.
• This strategy supports building a "best of breed" solution for large-scale PACS.