Radiology PACS are Going Offsite
Are you currently feeling mired down with your radiology PACS solution? In a perfect world if
money was not a barrier, how would you set up your PACS? Likely, many will want something that keeps up with the ever increasing flow of medical images that have to be archived and accessed on a daily basis.
Radiologists across the nation are doing what they can to keep up with the volume of medical images and by some accounts are interpreting up to 100,000 images a day. Furthermore, Meaningful Use requires that radiologists have their electronic reports on these images filed within 24 hours of the exam. For some radiologists, this stress is causing them to rethink their career choice. However, with the right medical imaging solutions, the burnout rate can drop drastically.
Radiologists today are finding out about radiology PACS software that utilizes perceptual design to offer cost-effective technology that takes into account the limitations of human perception. In some cases, these are simple technological advancements that can improve workflow as well as job satisfaction.
Why is this form of interpretation so important? Because studies have proven that when interpreting medical image after medical image, the ability to accurately study them declines. When radiologists can view high-prevalence stack cases, they are more accurate.
Furthermore, radiology PACS doesn’t always have to be about accessing images within the clinical environment, but it does if radiologists don’t have access to viewers outside of their workplace. In some situations, radiologists step outside of their department and they are barred from viewing their exams. However, when images are archived with a cloud-based vendor in a vendor neutral archiving (VNA) method, they can gain access anywhere as long as they have a secure Internet connection.
Radiology PACS workstations should be an ally, not an enemy, and that’s what cloud-based medical image archiving vendors are offering. The workstation suddenly becomes anywhere the radiologist is when they need to view a medical image. Furthermore, having the images stored in the cloud, they can easily share the images with other specialists.
Not all vendors are offering the technology to provide such access. For instance, there is a lot of talk about the advantages about VNA, but not everyone operates under the same definition. Thus, “true” VNA has become the game changer.
If you’re looking to build out a more functional workflow that gives you access to images regardless of the type of system you’re running, seek out a vendor that offers true VNA, which means they can read the full suite of DICOM SOP classes, can store objects in a non-proprietary format, provides context management, and it must be able to handle ADT updates to the image files that are stored in the archive.
OffSite Image Management, Inc. offers true VNA and a new approach to PACS that is helping radiologists with their workflow and their ability to share images across departments and across facilities.