PICTURE ARCHIVING AND COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

PICTURE ARCHIVING AND COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

The picture archiving and communication system (PACS) is a provision, used in medical imaging technology. It provides cost effective and easy access to images from multiple imaging tools. Radiological images and reports are transmitted digitally through PACS. It eliminates manual filing, retrieving and transport of films. DICOM (digital imaging and communications in medicine) is the universal format for image storage and transfer, which is used in PACS.

 Basically, PACS require four components namely,

(i) imaging device,

(ii) network system,

(iii) workstation, and

(iv) storage.

It delivers the images timely and provide easy access to images and interpretations. It avoids traditional film based image retrieval, distribution and display.

The PACS finds variety of uses that includes:

(i) replacing hard copy such as films,

(ii) providing remote access, including distance education and teleradiology,

(iii) providing electronic image integration platform with easy access to HIS (hospital information system), RIS (radiology information system), and

(iv) helping radiology workflow management such as patient examinations.

 The imaging tools include CT, ultrasound, MRI and PET, etc. The images from the modalities are sent to the quality assurance workstation, called PACS gateway (Fig. 8.17). It checks the patient demographics as well as attributes of the study. If the study information is correct, images are passed to the archive for storage.

Then, the radiologists review the images through their workstations and make the final report. The workstation and archive is a bidirectional transmission. PACS uses web based interfaces to use internet or wide area network (WAN) as their way of communication, via VPN (virtual private network) or SSL (secure sockets layer). The client side software includes Activex, Javascript and Java Applet. Very good backup for patient images is required, in case of loss of images from PACS. Hence, the images are automatically sending their copies to a separate computer for storage.