PICTURE ARCHIVING AND COMMUNICATION-SYSTEM BANDWIDTH AND STORAGE REQUIREMENTS

The purpose of this work was to determine the requirements for image s torage and network bandwidth for a total digital department in a moder ate sized academic radiology department. Data from the radiology infor mation system was combined with image production information to produc e a model of image acquisition. Destinations of images to reading room s were studied to determine the final distributions of film. All findi ngs were used to model the flow of data that would be expected if the images in the department were completely digital. Using today's standa rds, the department would produce approximately 15.7 Gbytes of data pe r day or 3.5 Tbytes of data per year if all acquisitions were digital. The peak acquisition rate would be 1.8 Gbytes per hour with a sustain ed rate greater than 1 Gbyte per hour for most of the working day. The anticipated bandwidth for the total digital department exceeded the c apabilities of the existing picture archiving and communication system equipment. A distributed networked archive solution was shown to opti mize access to images by radiologists and referring clinicians. (C) 19 96 by W.B. Saunders Company