Evolution of a filmless digital imaging and communications in medicine-conformant picture archiving and communications system: Design issues and lessons learned over the last 3 years

This presentation describes our experience and lessons learned over the fir st 3 years of developing and operating a filmless picture archiving and com munications system (PACS) for all computed tomography (CT), magnetic resona nce (MR), ultrasound, and nuclear medicine studies in our hospital. The PAC S conforms to the Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) st andard and includes a sophisticated Worldwide Web (WWW)-based interface to complement the regular DICOM services. The PACS has undergone many design m odifications from its inception, which have addressed performance, function ality, support, and maintenance issues. The lessons we have learned through making these modifications are described here and may prove to be helpful to anyone planning to deploy a PACS of their own. Copyright (C) 1999 by W.B . Saunders Company.