Certification forms foundation for integration challenges facing PACS

John DeLong, VP Marketing,
Medicalis Corporation

As healthcare reform drives the transition from a fee for service to a fee for value reimbursement model in the US, the focus for IT and PACS administrators is shifting to one of providing patient-centered solutions for integrating clinical and imaging information. Medicalis has been developing and refining evidence-based decision support, work list and workflow solutions to the radiology/PACS community since 1999. To learn how the company’s solutions help meet healthcare reforms imperatives for quality and efficiency, PARCA e-News talked with John DeLong, Vice President of Marketing at Medicalis.

PACS News Roundup

HIMSS had the highest attendance in its history

By Michael J. Cannavo

AuntMinnie – Mar. 3, 2014 ­– At just under 39,000 attendees, participation in the HiMSS 2014 in Orlando, FL, was the highest in the organization’s history and was up 12.5 percent over the 2013 edition of the show. The show featured 1,233 vendors and occupied more than 500,000 sq ft of exhibit space. There were more than 5,500 C-suite and senior management attendees, with close to that same number of IT professionals. Attendance for those key decision-makers for IT-related purchases was up 18.8 percent over last year, while attendance of other IT professionals who recommend those purchases was up 17 percent, according to the HiMSS.

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Integrated reading rooms enhance value of radiology

By Erik L. Ridley

AuntMinnie – Feb. 14, 2014 – It's no secret that radiologists need to increase their visibility with referring physicians if they want to ensure the future health of their specialty. One way to do that is by integrating radiology reading rooms into clinical areas, according to researchers from NYU Langone Medical Center.

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RIS/PACS Databases Best for Capturing CT Dose Data

By Leah Lawrence

DiagnosticImaging – Feb. 13, 2014 – Capturing data on computed tomography radiation doses from RIS/PACS databases was more accurate and cost effective than self-reported survey data, according to the results of a single-center study published in the European Journal of Radiology. - See more

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Straight Talk From the PACSman: Times, they are a-changin'

AuntMinnie – Feb. 6, 2014 –The trend has been to move away from having individualized data silos for each clinical system and toward a centralized data repository (CDR). There are a host of reasons behind this. Not only does ongoing support cost play a huge factor, but which CDR to pick usually requires a fairly extensive evaluation process. Things that need to be factored in include facilities archive requirements, as well as disaster recovery and even business continuity plans. This too requires IT involvement.

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Decomposed storage model suitable for DICOM images 

By Anna Steere

HealthImaging – Feb. 5, 2014 – A DICOM decomposed storage model (DCMDSM) is suitable as a storage layer for projects where DICOM images are stored once and retrieved whenever necessary, according to a study published online Feb. 3 by the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.

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