Transcript Image Archiving, Retrieval, Viewing & PACS – A

Image Archiving,
Retrieval, Viewing &
PACS – A Personal View!
Andy Kettle
Nuclear Medicine
East Kent Hospitals NHS Trust
PACS Is Just…..
A picture repository
A large data store
Pretty thick as a computer systems go
Immature
RIS/PACS not yet nuclear medicine
compliant
Too reliant on a still evolving Dicom
standard
PACS Limitations…
Image display only
Unable to recall data to modality
workstations
Nuclear medicine low priority in RIS/PACS
Local Need For…
Reviewing current patients studies with old
Reprocessing
New algorithms/methodology
Audit
R&D
Previous processing suspect
Reprinting/image transfer
Patient referral
Legal cases
Medical meetings
What We Have…
Archived data going back to 1990
ADAC pegasys + Siemens icon file formats
On 3 different media over 3 hospital sites
What We Need …
Robust on line archive that …
Stores data in proprietary file format
Able to recall proprietary files to corresponding
workstation for re-analysis
Able to view stored image data independent of
platform
Able to output DICOM files
The Solution…
1.6 terabyte RAID [SuSe Linux]
Pukka-J’s Dicom explorer
Benefits…
Creating a robust archive
Can always access the original proprietary
file
Can rebuild Dicom database as Dicom
develops
Images viewable on all hospital sites
Can add proprietary file conversion if
required in the future
How It Works…
Locally written scripts move the last days
images to the archive every night
Raid has a directory for each site
This could be sub divided to file platform
Pukka-j software makes a Dicom copy into
a global directory
Is It Perfect???
Nearly!!
Only as good as the quality of demographic
data entry
Hopeful this will improve with Dicom work
lists
ADAC Genesys acquisition bug!!
Local scripts need more error alerts/checks
Hospital network issues to address with PACS
implementation
Is It Perfect???
Like RIS/PACS it needs hands-on management
Pukka-J’s Dicom explorer
Supports all imaging modalities
Transaxial displays etc
Benefits of dealing with a small company
• Incorporated our commonly used Pegasys colour tables
• Developing home reporting package
• Create generic patches
Did I Make the Right Decision?