HIGH-RESOLUTION IMAGE WORKSTATION FOR INTENSIVE-CARE UNITS

Despite their potential for improving patient management and decreasin g costs, picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) are not be ing absorbed rapidly into clinical practice because of their technical immaturity and because the cost-effectiveness of the technology has n ot been established. Workstations and archives need to be significantl y improved before they can be useful. This report describes the author s' experiences with a high-resolution image workstation for a medical intensive care unit. The workstation has been designed around a standa rd computer platform and is equipped with two high-resolution image di splays. The user interface stresses speed and simplicity. Image manipu lation is simplified by providing empirical preset window and level va lues. Images are displayed in less than 2 seconds. The workstation als o displays radiologic reports as soon as they become available. Future work will focus on using the workstation to improve communication bet ween the physician and the radiologist.