Concepts and system requirements for a global PACS

摘要

Abstract: The technology for digital imaging in radiology and Picture Archiving and Communications Systems (PACS) has advanced at a rapid rate in the last five years. Local area fiber optic PACS networks which transfer digital images at over 200 Mega-bits per second are available now. Imaging equipment and viewing workstations technology currently provide excellent quality images for diagnosis and analysis for several modalities. In addition, the technology for network and telecommunications systems which transfer the images across country is also progressing rapidly. The opportunity exists to merge these technologies into a global PACS environment for digital radiology. This paper investigates the concepts of a global PACS and presents the user scenarios and system requirements for such systems. The concepts are described using user scenarios which describe diagnosis from remote workstations, interactive consultations when the experts are at remote locations, and conferencing between several experts located across country. The paper also describes the use of the new ACR-NEMA Version 3.0 standard for global PACS and the concept of national archive centers for research and education. The global PACS requirements are presented in operational, functional, and performance formats. A NSF sponsored project to develop a global PACS prototype system using the 45 Mbps NSFNET backbone network is summarized. The impact of such a system on digital radiology is explored.!12