PACS: Decision Support System for Radiologists

Picture archiving and communication system (PACS) is a healthcare technology for the short and long-term storage, retrieval, management, distribution, and presentation of medical images. A PACS allows an organization to capture, store, view, and share all types of images internally and externally. When deploying a PACS, the healthcare organization needs to consider an environment in which it will be used and other electronic systems with which it will integrate.

Integration with a medical imaging PACS technology improves radiologists' use of clinical decision support systems. Decision support systems for radiologists can provide information during image interpretation that may improve diagnostic accuracy and increase radiologists' confidence.

PACS as a Decision Support System

A picture archiving and communication system, more commonly referred to as radiology PACS system, is one of the most invaluable tool in radiology. It is proven that picture archiving and communication system has an effect on the care provided by the radiologist and consulting physician.

• Radiologists' ability to offer quality care improves when there are decision support tools embedded with the clinic's workflow, which is obtained from a radiology PACS system. Healthcare industry experts are of the opinion that PACS vendors and IT department specialists need to work in this direction and embed more decision support tools
• Rapid advancement of the radiology-related technologies allows for better image quality and hence leads to better diagnosis and excellent patient care in spite of the challenges of sharing, storing, archiving and displaying the electronic medical images
• Simply throwing a radiology PACS system into the mix isn't enough to truly improve decision making. There has to be a detailed plan in place to manage the changes that are ingrained while setting up a radiology picture archiving and communication system to ensure efficiency, quality, and productivity
• With the technological advancement and the advent of picture archiving and communication system and digital imagery, the diagnostic practice did change. But, what hasn't changed is the professional role of radiologists is that even after the introduction of PACS, radiologists by and large agree that the major focus is still on interpreting medical images correctly
• When digital images are derived from new technologies rather than film, it becomes easier for radiologists to manipulate them. These changes may take some time to get adjusted to, the manipulative tools and better image quality help in better decision making

10 Key Benefits of Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) for Radiologists

PACS is an important tool for all healthcare organizations which enables doctors and physicians to easily share medical imaging reports with others within a short time. Their usefulness is growing in spite of it becoming a standard platform at most facilities. Some of the key benefits of PACS include:

1. Images obtained from the PACS system allows you to zoom and manipulate it for better analysis and viewing
2. Peer review allows the physicians to review their daily workflow efficiently
3. PACS system helps in improving data management efficiency by reducing the duplicate images which were sent earlier
4. The PACS system allows staff to remotely view images, archive them, submit relevant reports, and send them to other physicians for further interpretation
5. PACS' neutral archives help in organizing the images in a better way with the help of an accessible and centralized system
6. PACS facilitates physicians to view patient history in a chronological order and compare the previous studies
7. Enterprise-wide data review, archive and distribution eliminates the need to work on multiple workstations, thereby saving costs and time
8. PACS complies with DICOM, HL7, XDS, and IHE standards and creates a global worklist which effortlessly integrates in complex multi-vendor scenarios, providing a scalable and robust web-enabled platform
9. PACS substantially improves diagnostic confidence of the radiologists by unifying workspace for routine reading with 3D capabilities and automating registration and streaming even in low bandwidth
10. PACS eliminates the need to configure, purchase and maintain multiple systems by leveraging the use of a single system, which in turn enhances satisfaction of the referring physician as well as the radiologist

Leverage the Benefits of PACS to Enhance Patient Care

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If you have any teleradiology service requirement, feel free to talk to us or fill in the contact form, and we will be happy to help you.