New Developments in Radiology and Medical Imaging - Essay Example

The use of PACS to import images has the support of physicians at UCSF but old technology dies hard thus the continued usage of viewing images on CD still standard (Phillips Medical Imaging Blog: Radiology PACS Reduces Repeat Procedures Per Recent AJR Study). 4 Implementation Cost of PACS 4 Table 1 5 Advantages of Implementing PACS 6 Disadvantages of Implementing PACS 7 Summary 7 Works Cited 8 New Developments in Radiology and Medical Imaging Introduction Medical imaging is an evolving industry with increasing technical advancements in the profession.

The ever changing technology requires that with cost effective architecture and technology the health business should lead to better patient care. Picture Archiving and Communications System (PACS) is one such new development in radiology. Other new advancements include CT scans, Ultrasound, Virtual Intraluminal Endoscopy, Positron Emission Tomography (PET), MRI, Radio Surgery and High Intensity focused Ultrasound (McKesson Medical Imaging Blog: Recent Advancements in Radiology). This paper focuses on PACS.

About Picture Archiving and Communications System (PACS) PACS are communication systems that allow physicians to read radiology images without leaving their computers. On McKesson website they reveal about McKesson Radiology 12.0 which introduces a new web-based platform with the ultimate PACS experience. The new release is made up of McKesson Radiology station, and the client side application for PACS solution which provide superior image display, work flow efficiency and system integration capabilities.

The platform reduces the total cost of ownership (TCO) of users through providing a scalable and flexible architecture for handling organization’s growing data. The technology provided improved access to images and clinical reports thus enabling physicians to deliver optimal patient care. The McKesson Radiology 12.0 has five deployment alternatives where one can choose from according to his flavor (McKesson All about PACS: the Picture of Better Health). These alternatives include: i. McKesson Radiology station provided for the performance-focused, diagnostic end-user. ii. McKesson Radiology station Lite provided for those who work outside the health care facilities and require streamlined solutions on standard windows-based PCs, laptops or Macitonsh Platforms. iii. McKesson Radiology station eJacket for referring physicians, patients and report-centric end- users. iv. McKesson Radiology station Disc provided for those who need to send CDs or DVDs to others i.e. referring physicians, consultation purposes from other specialists, and to patients for their own records. v. McKesson Enterprise Image Clinical Reference Viewer which addresses emerging mobile-workflow requirements for radiologists, referring physicians and other specialists.

Application Communication systems are a lifeline of any hospital and mostly within Radiology departments. Using PACS to import radiology images play an important role in reducing repeated tasks. At the McKesson Medical imaging blog David Philips explain an incident concerning a report concluding that patients who had undergone CT or MRI before transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) had more repeat imaging than when the images were imported into the PACS.