Imaging Technology News - January/February 2009 - (Page 18)

> > special report Will Web-Based PACS Take Over? Web-based PACS offers low cost, accessible workflow, but will it become the dominant model for PACS? By Mary Beth Massat Carestream’s PACS is Waddo compliant, enabling underlying streaming technology to quickly deliver data. A s radiology workflow needs change, so too do PACS. From servers to software, PACS has moved from a thick-client solution with proprietary coding and dated software to a standardsbased, open architecture system using off-the-shelf hardware. PACS vendors continue to introduce new solutions that are “Webbased.” Yet, what does Web-based PACS really mean to end users, how does it impact functionality and workflow, and will it become the dominant model for PACS solutions? As with Google, viewers will connect directly to that data center, allowing clinicians and patients to view data. Wet feet Did technology change radiology workflow or was it the other way around? As the story goes, radiology first got its feet wet with Web-based PACS in 1997, when the FDA declared the FCR Fuji Computed Radiography DMS CRT Image Console HI-C654 Multimodality Display —Al Dyer, System for Networks (FUJIFILM Medical Agfa Healthcare Systems USA) to be “substantially equivalent” to a legally marketed predicate device. Not long after, several other Web PACS emerged, including Amicas, Dynamic Imaging (currently GE Healthcare Centricity PACS-IW) and Stentor (now Philips iSite PACS). What does Web-based PACS really mean? Web-based systems run within the Web environment. The ‘client’ is an Internet browser and is responsible only for displaying the user interface; none of the application 1 runs on the client side and none of the processing is done there either. Al Dyer, marketing manager, PACS, at Agfa Healthcare, describes the Web-based concept as turning a browser, such as Internet Explorer, into a client. “It is an application that uses different Web technologies in a very open manner, regardless if the user is on a PC or a Mac, using Linux or Windows for the OS.” The concept is a very inclusive solution that is open to different platforms, he says. Virtual radiology changes the game The explosion of Web-based PACS is closely tied to the virtual radiology environment trend, notes Joe Maune, business manager, Healthcare Information Solutions, Carestream Health. “Five years ago, most of the diagnostic workstations were situated in the radiology department.” Today, many sites are decentralizing radiology read- Ziosoft’s Ziostation offers a full suite of advanced 3D analysis tools. ing and enabling radiologists to read remotely. Supporting this environment with a thick-client solution requires more capital equipment investment and supporting IT staff. “Many of the first Web viewers only offered very rudimentary tools, which works for a referring physician, but not a radiologist,” he added. It is important for Web-based PACS to have the ability to operate in a mixed environment, says Shelly Fisher, president, BRIT Systems. “Early on, many Web-based servers were Linux because the OS was free. Companies just had to build Thin- to Zero-Client their own PC,” she said. In fact, Architecture Fisher believes that in the future, the OS will be less important PACS models run the gamut from thick to thin to no client, than the toolkits as users evaluallowing the user to keep ate different Web-based PACS. his/her options open. ThinOne benefit of a Web-based clients today offer robust imagPACS is unlimited distribution of ing toolsets, such as Ziosoft’s underlying applications. In the Ziostation complete with a full case of Fuji’s Web-based suite of advanced 3D analysis Synapse, Jim Morgan, director of tools, and TeraRecon’s new iNtuition UNLIMITED release, marketing, Network Systems for delivering advanced applications FUJIFILM Medical Systems USA, via thin-client. said, “Users access the same software regardless of where A thin-client appliance does not they are located. For our cusrequire the installation of additional software on every worktomers, this translates to a PACS station on the network or at offthat is easier to deploy, easier to site workstations. Candelis update and easier to use.” offers a fully integrated But what is most important to ImageGrid RIS/PACS appliance, customers, according to some engineered to expand the Webexperts, is a robust front-end based RIS/PACS capabilities of the DICOM industry-standard viewer. “The viewer should proappliance. The ImageGrid techvide access to every image nology suite includes a Webwithin one to two seconds, and based diagnostic viewer for genoffer the same user interface for eral radiology applications and a everyone,” said Brad Levin, vice viewer for mammography-spepresident of GE Healthcare, cific diagnostic study reading. Dynamic Imaging Solutions Zero client architecture is a Group. Since the application Web-based, hardware-only resides on a standard operating appliance that runs no software system, such as Microsoft, the at all and directly connects the architecture and infrastructure is user to a virtualized desktop. This approach completely eliminot as complex and requires less nates the need to manage thintechnical intervention by the client software of any kind, and facility’s IT department than a means no software to download thick-client server solution. and no plug-ins. “Daily management is 18 > special report > J a n / F e b 2 0 0 9 http://new.reillycomm.com/imaging/special-report-b.php

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Imaging Technology News - January/February 2009

Imaging Technology News - January/February 2009 Contents IMRT Imaging RT Solutions for Troublesome Tumors PACS Radiology to Close the Imaging Loop Will Web-Based PACS Take Over? Is CT Dose Under Control? The Best in Digital Mammography Breast Biopsy Systems MX Series Monitors Provide University of Pennsylvania Quality Assurance Reduce Waste to Raise Revenue

Imaging Technology News - January/February 2009

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