Integration, acceptance testing, and clinical operation of the medical information, communication and archive system, phase II

The Medical Information, Communication and Archive System (MICAS) is a mult ivendor incremental approach to picture archiving and communications system (PACS). It is a multimodality integrated image management system that is s eamlessly integrated with the radiology information system (RIS). Phase II enhancements of MICAS include a permanent archive, automated workflow, stud y caches, Microsoft (Redmond, WA) Windows NT diagnostic workstations with a ll components adhering to Digital Information Communications in Medicine (D ICOM) standards. MICAS is designed as an enterprise-wide PACS to provide im ages and reports throughout the Strong Health healthcare network. Phase II includes the addition of a Cemax-Icon (Fremont, CA) archive, PACS broker (M itra, Waterloo, Canada), an interface (IDX PACSlink, Burlington, VT) to the RIS (IDXrad) plus the conversion of the UNIX-based redundant array of inex pensive disks (RAID) 5 temporary archives in phase I to NT-based RAID 0 DIC OM modality-specific study caches (ImageLabs, Bedford, MA). The phase I acq uisition engines and workflow management software was uninstalled and the C emax archive manager (ANI) assumed these functions. The existing ImageLabs UNIX-based viewing software was enhanced and converted to an NT-based DICOM viewer. Installation of phase II hardware and software and integration wit h existing components began in July 1998. Phase II of MICAS demonstrates th at a multivendor open-system incremental approach to PACS is feasible, cost -effective, and has significant advantages over a single-vendor implementat ion. Copyright (C) 1999 by W.B. Saunders Company.