Health Imaging & IT - October 2007 - (Page 36) special section: Oncology Imaging By Beth Walsh Making Image Management Easier From CT imaging to progress made in image-guided radiation therapy, effective image management is crucial to oncology imaging. Storage, retrieval and tools for comparing images must all come together in a cohesive, seamless process for effective and efficient cancer diagnosis, staging, re-staging and treatment. new offerings are making image management itself easier to manage. “T he amount of images we’re dealing with in oncology is a hundred times more than just a few years ago,” says Vasudha Lingareddy, MD, medical director of the Edward Cancer Center department of radiation oncology in Naperville, Ill. The 40,000square-foot facility opened in February 2005, and has seen double-digit volume growth each year since. As a result, plans are underway to open a second outpatient cancer center in another Chicago suburb in late 2008 or early 2009. filmless for efficiency From day one, the facility was designed to be filmless. “We worked toward everything being electronic,” says John Fan, PhD, senior medical physicist. The center started out with a Clinac linear accelerator with On-board Imaging and obtained a Trilogy linear accelerator for IMRT within a year of opening, both from Varian Medical Systems. The equipment helps with image management because “it is easier than film,” says Fan. “It’s more efficient and the images are better. There is less wait time for imaging prior to treatment” which lets the clinicians treat patients more efficiently. The center uses CT cone beam imaging, fiducial markers and image fusion for its cancer patients. Radiation oncology clinicians routinely use PET, MR as well as simulation CT images for treatment planning. These images must be fused together to provide correct tumor and anatomical locations. All of these techniques require a lot of storage. The hospital provides redundancy for the facility through its PACS. “Some people set up a little server in their department and they’re limited,” says Fan. “The whole thing has to fit into the general scheme of data storage.” Fan has built upon the Varian Aria framework for image management. The team also uses Arian Offline Review soft36 O C T O B E R 2 0 07 | Health Imaging & IT HealthImaging.com http://HealthImaging.com
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