Image Archiving, Retrieval, Viewing &

PACS – A Personal View!

Andy Kettle

Nuclear Medicine

East Kent Hospitals NHS Trust

PACS Is Just…..

A picture repositoryA large data storePretty thick as a computer systems goImmatureRIS/PACS not yet nuclear medicine compliantToo reliant on a still evolving Dicom standard

PACS Limitations…

Image display only

Unable to recall data to modality workstations

Nuclear medicine low priority in RIS/PACS

Local Need For…Reviewing current patients studies with oldReprocessing

New algorithms/methodologyAuditR&DPrevious processing suspect

Reprinting/image transferPatient referralLegal casesMedical meetings

What We Have…

Archived data going back to 1990 ADAC pegasys + Siemens icon file formats

On 3 different media over 3 hospital sites

What We Need …

Robust on line archive that …Stores data in proprietary file format

Able to recall proprietary files to corresponding workstation for re-analysis

Able to view stored image data independent of platform

Able to output DICOM files

The Solution…

1.6 terabyte RAID [SuSe Linux]

Pukka-J’s Dicom explorer

Benefits…

Creating a robust archiveCan always access the original proprietary fileCan rebuild Dicom database as Dicom developsImages viewable on all hospital sitesCan add proprietary file conversion if required in the future

How It Works…

Locally written scripts move the last days images to the archive every night

Raid has a directory for each siteThis could be sub divided to file platform

Pukka-j software makes a Dicom copy into a global directory

Is It Perfect???

Nearly!! Only as good as the quality of demographic data entry Hopeful this will improve with Dicom work lists ADAC Genesys acquisition bug!! Local scripts need more error alerts/checks Hospital network issues to address with PACS implementation

Is It Perfect???

Like RIS/PACS it needs hands-on management

Pukka-J’s Dicom explorerSupports all imaging modalities

Transaxial displays etc

Benefits of dealing with a small company• Incorporated our commonly used Pegasys colour tables

• Developing home reporting package

• Create generic patches

Did I Make the Right Decision?