by
Gus Iversen, Editor in Chief | April 22, 2015
From the April 2015 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
Investing in a new imaging modality is a huge decision, and successful vendors will tell you that technology is only one part of having satisfied customers. In an era of rapidly evolving workflows, good customer service is a vital component to the offering. No two hospitals have identical needs, but one thing will be abundantly clear to any facility venturing into today’s PACS market: things sure aren’t what they used to be.
The best-of-breed debate
Some PACS manufacturers are expanding their image viewing capabilities through backend partnerships. Craske describes the one between Agfa and TomTec, a leading developer of advanced cardiology image processing, as evidence of this. By moving away from standard desktop integrations, this model permits processing within the workflow.
“We can align with them technically and actually embed their leading code because of our architecture, and that deep integration is reflected in the efficient workflow,” says Craske. He credits this embedded approach to advances in how hanging protocols leverage processing as part of the presentation layout.
“It’s all about delivering the correct image at the right time,” says Tomer Levy, general manager of workflow infrastructure solutions at McKesson, “by bridging communication gaps, workflow intelligence platforms can be customized per an organization’s priorities.”
For consistent and predictable user experiences across the board, DICOM 3.0 is the key to the city. DICOM links the image data to other data stored in the DICOM header, such as the type of exam, other technical descriptive data and the patient ID, gender, birth date and more. By leveraging these attributes, PACS can overcome proprietary series descriptors within the imaging equipment. “This allows users to create a repeatable and consistent sequence of presentation states they can rapidly cycle through,” says Craske, while also lending itself to more efficient operations when delivering timely results to the point of care.
As companies have come to realize they need to accommodate a plug-and-play approach to imaging, Bill Stoval, vice president and general manager for Enterprise Imaging Solutions at GE Healthcare, says open architecture is common in PACS today. “Someone could say, ‘We love your image viewing system, but we already bought another VNA,’” says Stoval, “and we would say, ‘No problem.’” But ultimately, he thinks this kind of segmentation is a trend that will eventually be outgrown.
Rik Primo, national director of strategic relationships at Siemens Healthcare, takes a similar stance, agreeing that open architecture is essential but that eventually, the benefits of best-of-breed will not justify the complications. For now, however, it is a viable solution. For providing orthopedic endoprosthesis planning applications on PACS, Siemens integrates an application from a specialized third-party company.
