PACS users often face the challenge of incorporating paper documents into the digital image management workflow. One company hoping to solve the puzzle is PACSGear, a Pleasanton, CA-based PACS startup that has introduced a document scanning application called PacsScan.
Installed on standard PCs with network connections to the PACS and RIS networks, PacsScan software uses off-the-shelf, TWAIN-compliant document scanners to scan documents such as patient histories and technologist and staff notes. The documents can be scanned at the point they are created, matched with appropriate RIS patient information, and converted to an image series, according to the vendor.
The series is then included with the patient study, allowing for incorporation into PACS as well as for radiologists to access supporting, non-image information during the diagnostic process, said president Brian Cavanaugh.
"Physician orders or technologist notes are for the most part pieces of paper that are floating around the radiology department," he said. "If you have multiple facilities, often the sites spend an enormous amount of time faxing them back and forth. And now (with PacsScan), when the radiologists sit down to view the images, they can also view the documentation alongside the images, and they don't have to sort through a stack of papers."
The firm recommends using a PC with Windows 98/ME/2000, a Pentium III chip running at 600 MHz or faster, 256 MB of RAM, and 50 MB of free hard-disk space for images.
PACSgear was formally incorporated in July and released PacsScan soon after. In addition to Cavanaugh, other PACSGear principals include vice president of engineering Chris Barnett and vice president of sales and marketing Dick Howell.
The firm's first installed site was in August, at Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, CO. The company said it has also received orders for two more installations. PacsScan costs $1,500 per license.
Scheduled for release in January 2003, the next version of the product will feature optimization of document display for bright, high-resolution diagnostic displays. PACSGear hopes to expand the product beyond radiology, by integrating digital cameras for areas such as ophthalmology, as well as surgical, pathology, or dental applications, Cavanaugh said.
"(Those departments) often require integration of additional information besides just medical images," he said. "Being able to take pictures of pre-op photos, for example, and integrating them with the enterprise data set is going to be critical."
PACSGear will market PacsScan directly, but is also in discussions with several OEM clients regarding its possible inclusion as an add-on to other PACS offerings, Cavanaugh said. In addition, PACSGear will be demonstrated in the booth of UltraVisual Medical Systems at next week's 2002 RSNA meeting in Chicago.
Down the road, PACSGear executives say they plan to debut additional technologies and software designed to fill in PACS workflow gaps.
By Erik L. RidleyAuntMinnie.com staff writer
November 29, 2002
Related Reading
PACS firms integrate, broaden product lines, November 18, 2002
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