radRounds Radiology Network

Connecting Radiology | Enabling collaboration and professional development

Wong AW, Huang HK, Arenson RL, Lee JK.
Department of Radiology, University of California, San Francisco 94143-0628.

Radiographics. 1994 Sep;14(5):1119-26

Use of a picture archiving and communication system (PACS) for clinical review requires rapid access to patient images. The authors have developed a second-generation archive system for a departmental PACS that optimizes access time for both current and historical images. The system is based on a composite staging mechanism that uses multiple storage media: magnetic disks, erasable magneto-optical disks, and write-once-read-many (WORM) disks. A two-tiered communication network composed of a standard Ethernet network and a gigabit bandwidth fiberoptic UltraNet network is used for distributing images to remote display stations. The system currently archives 1.5 Gbytes of radiologic images daily from three magnetic resonance imagers, two computed tomographic scanners, one computed radiographic system, and one laser film digitizer. The system features (a) multiple optical drives and robotic arms, which support concurrent archival and retrieval operations; (b) a stacking mechanism, which provides fast retrieval of current images; (c) a pre-fetch mechanism, which minimizes on-line image retrieval, hence relieving peak-hour workload of the optical disk library and the networks; (d) studies grouping and platter management, which optimize retrieval of a patient's images from multiple examinations; and (e) a job-prioritizing control, which minimizes waiting time for radiologists and referring physicians to review images at the display stations. This system is suitable for a large-scale PACS to serve the clinical and research staff.

Posted via PubMed for educational and discussion purposes only.
Link to PubMed Reference

Views: 1

Sponsor Ad

© 2024   Created by radRounds Radiology Network.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service