subject: PACS Systems Facilitate DICOM Viewing and Archiving [print this page] PACS Systems Facilitate DICOM Viewing and Archiving
Every medical facility, whether large or small, requires an efficient mechanism for handling routine tasks, including those in the radiology room and beyond. For improved workflow in digital radiology environments, many hospitals, imaging centers and medical clinics choose to add a PACS system to the lineup of medical digital tools at their disposal. In this way, the PACS appliance enhances many of the tasks involved with DICOM viewing as well as creating a DICOM archive for your digital medical images.
DICOM viewing is possible through the use of a PACS appliance that is added to a personal computer, creating a clinical workstation when a diagnostic, medical-grade monitor is used. DICOM is a medical imaging format similar to the jpeg format used with digital images on a personal computer, and that format allows digital medical studies to be sent from a variety of modalities, including MRI, CT, PET, ultrasound and others, to the PACS system, where they can be read in the DICOM format, and then processed in a number of different ways. Digital medical images can be enhanced through pan, zoom and rotate features, and the brightness and contrast can be adjusted in order to bring the image up to the highest clarity, bringing better patient care every time a digital image is viewed on the system.
You can also use a PACS system to create a DICOM archive. A DICOM archive makes it much easier to stay within HIPPA compliance, because security within the system is enhanced through an administrator giving usernames and passwords to all authorized personnel who will be using the system. Compare this with individual CDs and DVDs upon which digital images may be placed, which can easily be lost or misplaced.
Another benefit that comes from using this type of DICOM setup is that disaster recovery of patient records is much easier. Digital medical studies may be sent to an offsite server, where all of the important information is kept safe and ready for when you need it. This process can also be automated, relieving you of having to remember to store and save digital images, making your entire medical office more productive every time a digital image is handled. The size of the archive can be scaled to suit your medical facilities needs as well. Archives ranging from one to dozens of terabytes in size are available, and smaller archives may have storage space added as needed, as your medical practice grows.
