Technical considerations for multimodality clinical workstations in a Hospital PACS project

Abstract

Medical imaging is extending more and more beyond radiology: Ophthalmology, dermatology, dentistry, endoscopy, pathology, nuclear medicine, neurosurgery, radiotherapy, cardiology and more medical specialties include the use of images into their daily routine. The definition and implementation of DICOM (Grayscale Standard Display Function, Presentation State Service Class) or several profiles included in the IHE Technical Framework (Presentation of Grouped Procedures, Consistent Presentation of Images, Key Image Notes) provide a very valuable starting point to reach an integrated solution. But some problems remain unsolved when not only radiology images but all image modalities are concerned. The Complejo Hospitalario Universitario de Santiago de Compostela (C.H.U.S.), in Galicia, Spain, is a tertiary care multi-hospital Institution formed by four hospitals, one centre of specialties and provides medical assistance to patients from more than 20 primary care centres. DIM (Digitization of Medical Imaging) is the project that has been carried out to evaluate the feasibility of a global PACS in which all medical images (static or dynamic) will be stored in an image archive, retrieved for therapeutic or diagnostic purposes and displayed on workstations throughout all the hospitals for consultation. As a consequence of the design of a global PACS project, a multimodality consultation workstation for clinicians is one of the most crucial elements of the global PACS. Therefore, the University of Santiago de Compostela has collaborated in the project by defining a number of guidelines and requirements of the hardware and software that will be suitable to perform this essential task.