Enterprise-wide PACS: beyond radiology, an architecture to manage all medical images

Abstract

Rationale and objectives: Picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) have the vocation to manage all medical images acquired within the hospital. To address the various situations encountered in the imaging specialties, the traditional architecture used for the radiology department has to evolve.

Materials and methods: We present our preliminarily results toward an enterprise-wide PACS intended to support all kind of image production in medicine, from biomolecular images to whole-body pictures. Our solution is based on an existing radiologic PACS system from which images are distributed through an electronic patient record to all care facilities. This platform is enriched with a flexible integration framework supporting digital image communication in medicine (DICOM) and DICOM-XML formats. In addition, a generic workflow engine highly customizable is used to drive work processes.

Results: Echocardiology; hematology; ear, nose, and throat; and dermatology, including wounds, follow-up is the first implemented extensions outside of radiology.

Conclusion: We also propose a global strategy for further developments based on three possible architectures for an enterprise-wide PACS.