EXPERIENCE WITH THE SZOTE PACS STARTING OPERATIONS

Almási L., Sóti Zs., Kuba A.*, Alexin Z.*, Nagy A.*, Nyúl L.*, Csernay L.⁺

Dept. of Medical Informatics, Dept. of Nuclear Medicine⁺, Szent-Györgyi Albert Medical University, Dept. of Applied Informatics, József Attila University *

Introduction:

During the last four years a Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) has been developed in the University mainly for educational purposes. The original intention was to use the system as a non-stop routine PACS, so the images of the modalities of the system should be available to the workstations connected to the University network at the different clinics.

Material and method:

Two CTs, one MR, one ultrasound, three fluoroscopy devices, two SPECTs, two gamma cameras and one X-ray film scanner have been connected to the computer network at SZOTE. One Silicon Graphics Challenge DM central image server collects the images and related data. The picture archiving and communication is DICOM conform. An ORACLE data management system facilitates the data retrieval. Step by step testing of the operation of the system began with the transport, conversion and archiving of images of two CTs, one MR and one SPECT.

Results:

The daily archiving of about 4000 images on 40-50 patients gradually demonstrated the slight incompatibility of DICOM or Interfile of the image modalities or converter stations and the minor shortcomings of the software. Most of the problems were detected and corrected with the DICOM verification tools of  our software; 91.4% of the transferred images were archived automatically, 8% of  them needed operator intervention and only 0,6% could not be built into the archives.

Three educational cabinets have been installed, in which the practical teaching of radiology has been performed since 1996.

Conclusion:

Using PACS in multi-vendor environment a special verification software has to be used to detect and correct DICOM form studies collected from various modalities. Full automatization is necessary for handling such huge amount of images, but it is useful to be able to modify DICOM files. To fullfil the automatization PACS and RIS/HIS connection is needed.

Corresponding author:

Almási L.⁺,

Dept. of Medical Informatics⁺,

Szent-Györgyi Albert Medical University, Dept. of Applied Informatics,

József Attila University*

Szeged, Hungary

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Oral presentation at EuroPACS'98, Barcelona, Spain

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