DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF PC-BASED HIS-RIS-MODALITY-PACS COUPLING- THE RESULTS OF EVALUATION OF INITIAL-STAGE WITH PERSONAL-COMPUTER APPLICATION

A PC-based HIS/RIS/Modality/PACS coupling was developed and operated w here hospital-wide PACS was closely cooperated with the HIS and RIS, T hree workstations with a magneto-optical disk (MOD) juke-box for each one were used as PACS servers to collect images from eight computed ra diography systems and three CT scanners. An implementation of JPEG com pression reduced network load and storage volume. Twenty PACS-terminal s can be connected to the PACS servers and get images from them. Funct ions of the terminals are magnification, tone scale modification and m ensuration. The physicians can also get images on HIS-terminals employ ing improved HIS-terminal functions. This system has many advantages: (1) inexpensive; (2) close cooperation with the HIS and RIS which make s them easy to manage and retrieve images automatically; and (3) it is an open system, which enables us to apply new technologies. As a matt er of fact the introduction of a new PC and a new OS made it possible to decrease displaying response time. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Irelan d Ltd, All rights reserved.