DIGITAL IMAGING AND COMMUNICATIONS IN MEDICINE (DICOM) PRINT SERVICE FOR CHEST IMAGING

Large-scale picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) have no t been widely implemented in this or other countries, In almost all ra diology departments film remains the medium for diagnostic interpretat ion and image archive. Chest imaging is the dominant screening examina tion performed within most imaging departments and as such, is an extr emely high-volume, low-margin examination. Digital technologies are be ing applied to chest imaging to overcome limitations of screen-film re ceptors (limited latitude) and current film management systems (single -image copy), Efficient management of images and information is essent ial to the success of a chest imaging program, In this al-tide we repo rt on a digital imaging and communications in medicine (DICOM)-based c entralized printing network for chest imaging. The system components a nd their operational characteristics are described. Our experience int egrating DICOM-compliant equipment supplied by several vendors is desc ribed, We conclude that the print model supported by DICOM is adequate for cross-sectional (eg, computed tomography and magnetic resonance) imaging but is too simplistic to be generally applied to projection ra diography. Copyright (C) 1995 by W.B. Saunders Company.