PACS: Picture Archiving And Communication System

PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication System) technologies have been widely used in healthcare for the most part of the last two decades. This technology is generally used in hospitals and health care systems. They have traditionally been associated with radiology departments, which are the most prolific producers of medical images. In addition to being able to share images within hospitals, clinics and healthcare system facilities, a PACS can integrate with ambulatory clinics and, sometimes, with external health systems. The introduction of PACS came in the early 1980's and has continued to improve and grow since then.

PACS fixes most of the issues that were encountered when using film-based radiology. Film could only be viewed in one

Mistakes made on patient records can be quickly corrected and every patient, along with their medical information, history and medical images, can be found on PACS. Because PACS uses the internet and servers to send and receive all its information, a concern for patient confidentiality comes up. The health insurance portability and accountability act of 1996 (HIPAA) has the mission to make portable electronic health records private and to make sure that they remain secure. PACS uses a secure network and multiple firewalls to transfer patient data in order to stay up to par with the regulations that HIPAA enforces. PACS is protected by username and password that only trained medical personnel is provided

The technologist retrieves the order order in a similar fashion, via an electronic worklist or a paper requisition however, the rest of the process is very different. The first step in the PACS workflow is that the order is input into the Radiolgy Information System (RIS), and the RIS communicates to the PACS to search for any medical images and put them on the short-term archive. The technologist prepares the room, brings the patient in and performs the patient history. The history is electronically put into the patient's medical record files. The radiographer does the examination and the images are processed and sent to the appropriate PACS network. The patient images have been joined together with other information from the RIS so that past images and image reports are available on the PACS when the new images are sent. The radiologist uses the past images and reports to compare the readings and results from the past images with the current images. The last step in the PACS workflow is when the radiologist dictates a report and has it written out and attached to the images. The can review the report right after dictation, make corrections, and sign the report, making it