Diagnostic Imaging Scan - March 18, 2008 - (Page 3) do little, however, if the challenge facing an institution is the replacement of one PACS with another. This typically happens when early adopters realize that their first system is not their last, a phenomenon becoming more common as the PACS industry matures. One of the underappreciated challenges in making such a change is the need to migrate data from the old PACS to the new. Companies such as Agfa have developed vendorneutral PACS archives, pitching these technologies as the smart up-front choice when installing any PACS so that future problems can be avoided. “With this, there is no need to migrate the data over and over again,” said Lenny Reznik, Agfa director of enterprise image and information systems. This is all fine and good for the site that plans ahead. But for those that haven’t and now must make a change, data migration can be big trouble. For some companies, however, this trouble spells opportunity. Dejarnette Research Systems offers a PACS Migration Service designed specifically to move data from legacy PACS to new ones, “tuning” the data to match new clinical requirements in the process. But before data can be moved, they must be generated. This process should be done in a way that makes the data as useful as possible to healthcare providers, not only at the site where they were captured, but across the spectrum, from the smallest to the largest facilities. This has some in the user community worried, as “PACS-lite” products find their way into imaging centers, community hospitals, and even some midsize facilities laboring under tight budgets. “It’s a challenge for vendors to deliver all the services that a customer with a limited budget might need to have a successful PACS,” said Bob Cooke, vice president of network business management for Fujifilm. Cooke advises using managed services hosted by the vendor who supports and manages the IT infrastructure for the small hospital, imaging center, or reading group. Playing into the hands of such a program is thin-client computing, whereby a server performs sophisticated postprocessing—to produce 3D or CT colonography studies, for example—and then transmits the reconstructed data to PCs anywhere on a network. Thin-client computing offers the advantage of “fee-per-study” pricing with zero or minimal capital investment on the part of the customer. It also provides the flexibility to handle ever-growing data sets derived from CT, MR, PET/CT, and digital mammography and the more sophisticated data processing that goes with them. Offsite services save healthcare providers from having to administer a PACS, as they eliminate the need to expand server or storage capacity to meet rising data demands, sparing providers the worry of handling potentially incompatible systems and eliminating issues surrounding the security of patient data. Fee-per-study also simplifies the cost justification that increasingly accompanies the implementation of IT systems. “It’s nice to add IT systems, but CIOs now are being asked to put forward the business case of how IT translates into productivity and cost control,” Dijkstra said. But all the technology in the world, even when applied in the most cost-effective way possible, provides few benefits if it is not used efficiently. This is where training comes in, not just in the use of the PACS and other IT systems, but in the use of tools to create and view advanced studies, such as coronary CT angiography. Vendors are limited in what they can do, as this relates more to professional development and, therefore, is the bailiwick of groups such as the American College of Radiology and Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine. But in an industry drawn closer together by interlinking issues and the need to handle increasingly disparate demands, solutions depend more on cooperation among once distinct elements of that group. This raises the question of how deeply vendors should venture into areas that traditionally have been beyond their bounds, a question that resonates with professional training. addition to patient-monitoring and life-support products, offers in vitro diagnostics and diagnostic ultrasound systems. Canadian digital radiography specialist Imaging Dynamics reported a 17% drop in revenue during 2007 to $32.45 million from $39.03 million the previous year. Revenues shrank 34% in 4Q 08 to $8.26 million from $12.53 million in the yearearlier period. IDC lost 24¢ per share for 2007 and 7¢ per share in the fourth quarter. “Cranial settling,” observed using Fonar’s Upright MRI scanner, is a key indicator of Chiari malformation 1 and hereditary disorders of connective tissue, according to research published in the Journal of Neurology. This settling is apparent in upright MR as shifting of brain tissues, including a displacement of the cerebellar tonsils. These structural changes restrict flow of cerebrospinal fluid, causing dizziness, muscle weakness, numbness, vision problems, headache, and problems with balance and coordination. QuiCk HiTs Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals plans to launch a first-of-its kind “smart” cabinet for managing contrast media that will be available in the U.S. in late April or early May. VistaTrak, shown as a work-inprogress last year at the RSNA meeting, uses radiofrequency identification technology to track tagged bottles of contrast agent. In a battle of workstations at the European Congress of Radiology, TeraRecon’s thinclient iNtuition completed cardiac workflow tasks in less than three-quarters of the available time and delivered the fewest number of false positives in a CT colon examination, according to the company. TeraRecon’s iNtuition was the only thin-client participant, allowing the interactive results to be shared among a widely distributed network of PCs. More than 500 sites around the world are using IntelePACS, according to its developer, March 18, 2008 Medical physicists rank greatest moments in medical history Discovery of x-ray in late 19th century tops list, followed by MR Ever wonder what innovations qualify as the greatest advances in the history of medicine? Looking forward to its 50th anniversary celebration, set for the July annual meeting in Houston, the American Association of Physicists in Medicine took a look back on the history of medicine and drew some satisfying—if not entirely surprising, at least from its perspective—conclusions. The greatest medical physics advance in the last century, give or take a few years, is the discovery by Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen in Copyright © 1991-2008 CMP Healthcare Media Group LLC
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