Published on the Sept. 2, 2015, DiagnosticImaging.com website
By Whitney L.J. Howell
Since May, there’s been ongoing debate about one of your most significant, frequently-used tools – your PACS. Has it, in fact, outlived its original purpose only to be replaced by a sleeker, more versatile system?
At this year’s SIIM conference, Donald Dennison, director-at-large of the SIIM Board of Directors and chair of the ACR Connect Committee, rocked the industry by suggesting just that. He predicted that by 2018, the radiology world would be PACS-less, and there are some in the community who agree.
But, not all. Many of you – practitioners, vendors, and customers – still believe there’s life-blood in PACS. Just not in its current iteration. The system has to change to fulfill a new role within a rapidly-morphing health care environment. If it can do that, radiology’s diagnostic workhorse will still be able to meet your needs and those of the industry’s other stakeholders.
“This isn’t a death – it’s a maturation. It’s overly hyperbolic and misleading to discuss the death of PACS,” said Paul Chang, MD, radiology professor, vice chair of radiology informatics, pathology informatics, and enterprise imaging medical director at the University of Chicago. “This is us saying today’s radiology department isn’t the file room. Our value is in interpretation of imaging studies and contributing to patient management.”
But, to meet that goal, you must be aware of the many factors affecting the direction in which your PACS will likely go.
To read the remainder of the article at its original location: http://www.diagnosticimaging.com/pacs-and-informatics/fate-pacs
