Dear RIS Insider,
Commercial radiology information systems may be turning 32 this year, but they're not settling down just yet. As RIS continues to mature and evolve, it is reinvigorating the radiology information technology sector.
At the recent Society for Computer Applications in Radiology (SCAR) conference in Vancouver, Fred Prior, Ph.D., from the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology in St. Louis, presented an overview of the past, present, and future of RIS.
Prior made the argument that RIS and PACS products, rather than being two distinct entities, are more like fraternal twins accidentally separated at birth -- the accident being that RIS was developed years before PACS.
The market has begun to blur the line between the tools, he said. Many vendors are offering connectivity options between RIS and PACS, while others have begun to offer a fully integrated RIS/PACS product sharing a unified database. However, Prior believes that from a RIS point of view, PACS is simply a replacement for the analog film library, and digital image management has become a new RIS function.
As a RIS Insider subscriber, you have access to this story before it is made available to the rest of our AuntMinnie readers. You'll find Prior's analysis of the state of the RIS market in 2004 here.
If you have a comment or story to share about radiology informatics, please feel free to contact me at [email protected]. I look forward to hearing from you.
