-- for managing images
Medical image diagnosis occupies a considerable proportion in modern medical activities. With the continuous development of visualization technology, modern medicine has become more and more inseparable from the information of medical images, which is playing an extremely important role in clinical diagnosis, medical research and other aspects. Medical image information is diversified, such as ultrasound scanning images, color Doppler ultrasound images, nuclear magnetic *** vibration (MRI) images, X-CT images, X-ray fluoroscopy images, a variety of electronic endoscopic images, microscopic images of pathological sections. With the deep development of medical diagnostic visualization technology, people are making continuous efforts to seek for clearer and more diagnostic value of high quality medical images. Chinese hospitals have introduced a large number of imported advanced medical image equipment in the past decade or so, which has played an important and positive role in improving the diagnostic level and strengthening the management of hospital grades. Due to the financial problems and the level of instrument design, most of the medical imaging equipment does not consider the image storage and transmission functions, at best, the configuration of a printer or X-ray film for image recording. Doctors diagnosis is through the instrument screen image of the naked eye observation, based on personal experience to analyze the diagnosis, subjective component is more.
With the rapid development of electronic computer technology, especially multimedia technology, so that the storage and transmission of medical images possible, large-capacity hard disk, image information compression technology, read-write CD-ROM applications, so that medical images can be stored in large quantities. DICOM3.0 standard development so that the medical image and a variety of digital information in the transmission of computers have a unified standard, through the data interface with the Internet. The data interface and the Internet connection, you can carry on the medical image information remote transmission, realize the off-site consultation. PACS is to realize the medical image information management is an important condition, it will medical image from the acquisition, display, storage, exchange and output digital processing, and finally realize the image storage and transmission.
In addition, through the computerized intelligent processing of medical images and information, image diagnosis can be made to abandon the traditional visual observation and subjective judgment. With the help of computer technology, the pixel points of the image can be analyzed, calculated, processed, and relevant and complete data can be derived to provide more objective information for medical diagnosis. The latest computer technology can not only provide morphological images, but also functional images, which can make the medical image diagnosis technology go to a deeper level. For example, Siemens' syngo .via system has changed the traditional image post-processing concept, completely abandoned the software-oriented traditional CT workstation work style, opened up a new work perspective oriented to anatomy or disease diagnosis, and become the first imaging work platform that directly serves the diagnosis of diseases. It frees diagnosticians from tedious image post-processing and allows them to focus on medical diagnosis. syngo .via also won the 2010 IF Product Design Award for its user-friendly interface.
Mass storage devices are divided into four categories: magnetic, optical, tape, and others (such as holographic storage) that are still evolving. Disk capacity is growing by leaps and bounds, and the way of the future is terabyte-class desktop disks, with prices dropping to 3 cents/MB by the year 2000. among optical storage devices, DVDs are the current hot spot, but their impact is nowhere near as great as that of CD-ROM technology was back in the day. dvd is currently available as a backup medium, but it is still deficient as a storage medium, and rewritable dvd's are not yet mature. New advances in magnetic tape include multitrack recording, magnetoresistive heads, and new formats that allow random access. Magnetic tapes are attractively priced, but they cannot be protected from moisture or from proximity to magnetic fields, and the requirements for storage locations are more stringent.
Backup (archiving) is a dynamic process that must take into account changes in technology, and an archiving strategy must take this into account. For example, it is not cost-effective for an organization to have a 7-year archive capacity of 11TB and therefore purchase 11TB of storage media now, but the price of storage media will fall in the future and technology will change.
The performance, reliability and capacity of the database is directly related to the performance of the PACS system.Every flow of images in a PACS system is related to the database, but the database technology for PACS has been neglected. This will change when PACS is integrated into MIS systems. The development of high availability technologies will become increasingly important as users become more dependent on PACS. The goal is to support all activities related to images within the hospital, integrating medical equipment, image storage and distribution, display of digital images during critical diagnostics and consultations, image archiving, and external information systems;
PACS is a fundamental part of the HIS (Hospital Information System) hospital information system, and the medical images managed by PACS are also those generated by the hospital. The medical images managed by PACS are also the information generated by the hospital, the hospital uses the images managed by PACS at the same time, but also need other information managed by the HIS system, so PACS should have interoperability or integration with the HIS. Telemedicine (Telemedicine) is a new type of medical service that originated in the 1950s and has unique advantages in providing high-quality medical services in rural areas, and telemedicine consultation, which has been emerging in China since the 1990s, is also a typical application of telemedicine. Current domestic telemedicine generally uses video conferencing systems for communication between the two parties, while patient information and diagnostic images are delivered via video. The level of telemedicine can be greatly improved if there is the support of PACS and HIS, real-time transmission of digitized CT and other medical images and diagnostic and treatment information, and support for multi-point information exchange, which is the current direction of development and hotspot of domestic and foreign telemedicine. The goal is to improve the efficiency of using medical equipment within the department;
At present, the first stage of enterprise-wide image distribution has been applied in many departments. Adequate display technology has been implemented in departments outside of radiology where image display is most needed, but it is not yet possible to display images in any location. Archiving is now done using DLT or MOD and in some cases CDR.PACS will always require high-speed communication network support, especially within radiology departments. Low-speed networks can be used for clinical displays.The capabilities of ATM are not yet fully utilized, especially ATM's ability to transmit moving images and images with still images.Integration of RIS with PACS allows for diagnostic reports to be displayed at workstations.It is also important for PACS and RIS to keep track of patient flow through the hospital, which facilitates automated prefetching, routing, and distribution of images and exams.Further integration of RIS and PACS is still a work in progress. Further integration of RIS with PACS is still in development. The goal is to help other departments in the hospital, especially the emergency room (ER) and intensive care unit (ICU), access images generated by the radiology department;
Current workflows in digitized radiology departments are still based to some extent on film-based workflows. With the introduction of computerized information systems, such workflows should be changed accordingly to gain greater benefit from new information technologies. The information technology introduced must be suitable for integration into the operating model currently in use. The goal is to support remote image transmission and display.
Depending on the actual requirements of the hospital, an actual PACS system may contain one or more of the four categories of applications listed above. And a hospital's realization of a PACS system is also in accordance with these four categories for step-by-step gradual completion.
The development of PACS systems has challenged the following six technologies: mass storage devices, database technology, user interfaces, distributed computing, compression, and connectivity.
On the user side, the integration of analytic enhancements and image enhancement technologies is important. User interfaces and applications can be distributed as needed. Web-based displays are one example.
Distributed computing will be integrated into radiology medicine. web technologies and component-based software (thin-client technologies) will be slow to integrate.
Some people think that as bandwidth and storage capacity grow there will be no requirement for compression, but in fact compression will show its importance. Wavelet technology will become the standard, with applications in archiving and data transfer.
Connections from the home will grow as 2M/s bandwidth is utilized. Within hospitals, higher bandwidth will be developed for the transmission of moving images and other information.
What do these advances mean for PACS? As PACS grows database high availability will become more and more critical.OO technology will only show importance for PACS if other information systems used in the organization adopt OO technology.