<title>Utilization of an integrated multidepartmental medical imaging system in a hospital environment</title>

Abstract

ABSTRACTDevelopment of automated medical information systems requires knowledge about the utilization of the system;both for design and as feedback during the development process. One of the significant advantages of computer systemsis that they can provide an automatic log of system utilization. This paper reports the first study of utilization datacollected automatically in an integrated image environment. Images are routinely used in clinical care. Selected imagesare shown repeatedly for teaching, demonstration, and reference at locations throughout the hospital. Images are viewedboth by the collecting service when producing procedure reports and consultations, as well as by the treating physiciansfrom other hospital services. Medical departments have developed image collection policies to meet their internal needsand the needs of treating physicians.2. VA'S DHCP INTEGRATED IMAGING SYSTEMTo support its physicians in providing high quality health care, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs isinstalling and evaluating a distributed imaging system that provides image management and communications functionalityas an integral part of its existing integrated hospital information system, the Decentralized Hospital Computer Program(DHCP). The system's network provides connectivity for multiple image servers, 80386-based high resolution true colorimage workstations, and the networked DHCP hospital information system [1,2]. It also provides shared services, suchas image printing, image processing, file transfer and format conversion, image archiving to optical disk jukebox, andbackup. The system has been handling a variety of medical images from cardiology studies, microscopic pathology slides,and endoscopic examinations. Other image types have been recently added including radiology studies, in situ pathologyas seen in the operating room, and images of dermatologic or ophthalmologic lesions.