Dear PACS Insider,
Unnecessary repeat imaging studies are costly, adding wasteful expense and exposing patients to unnecessary radiation dose. Importing outside imaging studies into PACS may go a long way toward addressing this problem, however.
In a study presented at the recent RSNA 2011 meeting, a University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) group found that importing outside studies into PACS led to a repeat imaging rate similar to patients who didn't have outside imaging and much lower than patients who either did not have their outside imaging exams imported or did not have outside imaging studies available.
Our coverage of the UCSF research is the subject of this month's PACS Insider Exclusive, which you can access before the rest of our AuntMinnie.com members by clicking here.
Mobile devices were again hot at year's RSNA meeting, and we've got current coverage of a number of presentations, including research finding the iPad to be up for the challenge of handling plain radiographs.
In another study featured in the PACS Digital Community, a Spanish research team found that both the iPad 2 and iPhone 4 could be used for evaluating acute stroke. However, the larger screen size of the iPad 2 gave the tablet the edge. Get the details here.
The iPad was also judged to be feasible for use in assessing pulmonary nodules and for mobile emergency CT reading.
Difficulties in dealing with outside image CDs was the topic of an RSNA 2011 paper by researchers from the Mayo Clinic, which is experiencing a troubling increase in the number of non-DICOM-compliant CDs coming to their institution.
In other current PACS coverage from RSNA 2011, find out what Thomas Jefferson University's Dr. David Levin had to say about outsourcing night call to nighthawk firms by visiting here.
In addition, lossy compression was found to have a negative effect on computer-aided detection performance but not 3D volume rendering.
You can also learn how a cloud-based platform can facilitate sharing of images and reports here. Speaking of the cloud, Theo Ahadome of market research firm InMedica shares his thoughts on the barriers facing cloud PACS.
Do you have a topic you'd like to see covered or are you interested in submitting an article? Please feel free to drop me a line.
Happy holidays from all of us at AuntMinnie.com!
