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Enterprise imaging and multi-departmental PACS.

Bergh B

Information Technology and Medical Engineering, Universitätsklinikum Heidelberg, Tiergartenstrasse 15, 69121 Heidelberg, Germany. bjoern.bergh@med.uni-heidelberg.de

The aim of this review is to present the status of digital image acquisition and archiving outside of radiology and to describe the technical concepts and possibilities of how a "radiology" Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) can become a multi-departmental (MD-)PACS. First the principles of system integration technology are explained and illustrated by the description of a typical radiology system integration. Then four types of modality integration approaches are defined: the direct modality integration (Type-I), the integration via DICOM acquisition software (Type-II) the integration via specialised systems either with (Type-III) or without PACS connection (Type-IV). The last section is dedicated to the presentation of the PACS requirements of selected interdisciplinary modality types [Endoscopy, Ultrasound and Electrocardiography (ECG)] and clinical disciplines (Pathology, Dermatology, Ophthalmology and Cardiology), which are then compared with the technical possibilities of a MD-PACS.

Published 24 November 2006 in Eur Radiol, 16(12): 2775-91.
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