Health Imaging & IT - May 2008 - (Page 46)

speCial seCTion upgrading ris/paCs carefully planned strategy and in close collaboration with strong vendor partners. In the case of the Children’s Health System syngo Suite project, planning began in 2005. The hospital invited a Siemens team to the hospital to complete a Volume Analysis Report. The plan focused on optimizing the RIS/PACS and RIS-driven workflow. “During the three-day site visit, the Siemens team reviewed all aspects of the digital image management process: volume, throughput and the archive and data center. Next, the team provided specific feedback on what was needed to optimize the system,” says Odom. “The report showed us that we were doing many things well, but it also pinpointed some areas for improvement,” continues Odom. Specifically, Siemens indicated that the one-person PACS team was understaffed and recommended the hospital hire an additional PACS support administrator, which they did—bringing PACS Administrator Josh Pavlovec on board to help Odom. The Volume Analysis Report unveiled a second major, but not unsurprising, finding. The hospital had not anticipated the impact of 64-slice CT when it deployed PACS. Consequently, the tape archive was nearing capacity. The report recommended additional improvements, including investing in EMC Centera content-addressed storage infrastructure and beefing up the network backbone. The upgrade includes: › Dual Core switches connecting to the DataCenter housing the server farm to provide redundancy in case of a hardware failure or fiber loss. › Three Gig connections in each user closet for increased bandwidth to each user closet. The fiber paths travel in different directions to provide fiber path redundancy. › The backplane (maximum throughput for a switch or stacked switches) for the user-based switches increased from 2.5Gbps with the Nortel to 32Gbps with the Cisco. The backplane for the core switches went from 128Gbps to 720Gbps. › Eight Gig connections to provide 16 Gig throughput between the four core switches. › Limited Gig to the desktop. › Power Over Ethernet (POE) to wireless devices. “The network project was a win-win proposition; it serves as the foundation for syngo Suite and will facilitate other planned IT projects,” notes Atkins. Ultimately, Siemens Volume Analysis Report served two purposes: a springboard and framework for planning the next-generation PACS. Odom describes the syngo Suite project as both a migration and a transition. “Children’s migrated imaging data from the tape library to EMC Centera active archiving storage solution. At the same time, the hospital transitioned its workflow, using its solid RIS-driven workflow as a base for a next-generation integrated workflow model that includes voice recogni- looking AheAd Siemens syngo Suite is a future-oriented platform. Children’s Health System invested in the new system as part of an overall strategic vision for its radiology department and healthcare system. “This is a longterm process of progressive improvements,” explains Chief of Radiology Stuart Royal, MD. In the next year, Children’s hopes to tap into a pair of upgrades (syngo TrueD and syngo Portal Radiologist) to realize further clinical and workflow benefits. syngo Suite also serves as a model for longterm projects, including a paperless electronic health record (EHR). Children’s looks to streamlining communication and workflow Chief of Radiology Stuart Royal, MD, reads CT images in the central reading room at Children’s Hospital of Alabama in birmingham. 6 Health Imaging & IT | May 2008 HealthImaging.com http://HealthImaging.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Health Imaging & IT - May 2008

Health Imaging & IT - May 2008 Contents On the Web The Enterprise News Update Convention Spotlight: SIIM 2008 Healthcare IT Salary Survey Survey Findings Inside the Transition to Next-Generation Image Management Blurring the Lines: Interfaced vs. Integrated RIS/PACS The Insider's Primer: Taming the Workflow Beast - Five Facilities Tell How Availability, Applications Drive New Archive Strategies Modality Review Managing Technology Inside Technology Reader's Resource Stat Sheet

Health Imaging & IT - May 2008

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