Disks offer cost-effective storage solution

Online archiving systems offer a practical and cost-effective alternative to traditional hierarchical storage solutions that rely on prefetching, said Prof. Erwin Bellon, PACS manager at University Hospitals Leuven in Belgium. Radiology examinations at the Leuven hospitals account for approximately 8 TB each year before compression. A core archive stores images with lossless compression, while a separate clinical archive uses lossless compression to keep data for Web-based retrieval.

Plans for the core archive to use hierarchical storage have been abandoned, Bellon said. All new imaging studies are now stored online on magnetic disk, and two jukeboxes are being phased out. Older images prefetched from the jukeboxes are being transferred to magnetic disk.

Standards shape reporting structure

PACS users and vendors must meet the challenges posed by standardized reporting frameworks, Dr. Bernard Gibaud said during an invited lecture at EuroPACS 2002. DICOM structured reports (SR) define a generic data structure for radiological reports, independent of modality or specialty. Users must define exactly what they want these reports to deliver, while vendors should respond to market expectations when developing their system architecture, said Gibaud, director of the Laboratoire IDM, University of Rennes I, France.

Although DICOM SR represents a significant step toward structured multimedia documentation, emergence of new standards such as HL7 for clinical document architecture, as well as requirements of the Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise initiative, may shape future developments, Gibaud said.

EuroPACS meeting in Finland attracts IT experts

The first EuroPACS conference to be held in Scandinavia proved popular with European radiologists and IT professionals. Organizers of EuroPACS 2002 welcomed 350 registered participants to Finland, although only 200 to 250 attendees were originally expected.

Dr. Jarmo Reponen, president of the EuroPACs 2002 organizing committee, noted that many people had learned of the meeting from publicity at the European Congress of Radiology, held in Vienna in March. A special agreement with Finnair allowed delegates to make a precongress visit to Helsinki University Hospital before traveling north to Oulu.

User support reduces fear of PACS transition

A three-year sociological study of the effects of PACS implementation on radiologists highlights the importance of "superusers," education, and support during the transition period. Researchers from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm surveyed 12 radiologists working in the Swedish region of Skane in 1998, again in 1999 (18 study participants), and in 2001 (14 participants). Data were collected through questionnaires and one-to-one interviews.

Respondents generally felt comfortable after the switch to filmless radiology because it had not required a major organizational change, said Dr. Kent Fridell, an associate lecturer in the department of nursing care at the Karolinska Institute. Their comments also showed the value of personal meetings between clinicians and radiologists, even when image data and reports could be communicated electronically.

Regional hospitals in Spain opt for broadband

Radiologists and neurosurgeons working in northeast Spain are benefiting from a newly installed high-speed broadband connection for telediagnosis. Four county hospitals in Catalonia are linked to the UDIAT Diagnostic Center in Sabadell, according to Octavio Barbero, member of the UDIAT Image Laboratory. The network lets radiologists at Sabadell report CT examinations from a linked hospital with no radiologist on duty, and allows UDIAT staff to facilitate teleconsultations with neurosurgeons on call or working elsewhere.

The first hospital to join the system hooked up via two ISDN lines (256 KB/sec), Barbero said. A second hospital is connected to the Scientific Ring, a broadband network (512 KB/sec) promoted by the government of Catalonia and the main universities. A broadband connection promoted by regional governments links two additional hospitals and has boosted data flow to 2 MB/sec.

Online education evolves on EAR Web site

EuroRad, the online database of the European Association of Radiology, may provide a suitable site for Web-based continuing medical education, said Dr. Davide Caramella, an associate professor of radiology at the University of Pisa in Italy. Work is already under way to index teaching cases published on www.eurorad.org. Modification of the site's format to include the test required for CME credit will take a little longer.

Additional goals for EuroRad include boosting the number of submissions and reducing the time to publication. Delays in posting new cases online are often due to contributors' slowness in making changes in response to reviewers' comments, Caramella said.