Digital dashboard monitors PACS operation

By: Douglas Page

Despite the need for rapid image access and minimal downtime, PACS vendors have provided few tools with which system administrators can proactively diagnose problems and relieve bottlenecks within a PACS network.

"Effective performance monitoring is a vital component of any robust system management process to ensure system health," said Paul Nagy, Ph.D., an assistant professor of radiology at the Medical College of Wisconsin. "Without a holistic approach to performance, end user needs will be hard to meet."

The predominant tool in a PACS administrator's performance-monitoring kit is a stopwatch, used to make firsthand measurements of poor-response complaints. But this method records only a single point in time. Most performance issues in a central on-demand architecture concern the download time between servers and the workstation, Nagy said at the 2002 SCAR conference in May.

"PACS administrators are inadequately equipped to differentiate between performance problems of the vendor and of the hospital network infrastructure," Nagy said. "Without adequate evidence to prevent the blame game, performance problems might not be resolved in a reasonable time, if at all."

Frustrated by a lack of PACS performance-monitoring tools on the market, Nagy developed one of his own. Called PACSPulse, it gives PACS administrators a big-picture view of the system's performance while allowing them to drill down in areas that are performing poorly.

DICOM performance traffic from an archive is logged and placed into a database that can be queried to generate graphs in real-time. The graphs are used to create a digital dashboard that enables the administrator to monitor the health of the system, he said.

The graphical dashboards yield quick snapshots of how the entire system is working, with the data separated according to whether it is coming into the archive or going out.

"Performance is typically more important going out to the workstation than on entry from a modality," Nagy said.

These user-friendly reports are interpreted by the administrator, vendor, and IT personnel. The goal of the tool is to facilitate communication and ensure that the PACS is optimized for the environment in which it operates, he said.

Thus, when responding to a performance complaint initiated by a radiologist, the administrator can zoom in on the workstation in question and compare performance metrics over the past several days or weeks. Nagy's system is also capable of comparing the performance of other workstations, analyzing server loading, and predicting storage requirements.

"PACS administrators need to take a proactive approach to ensuring adequate performance based on user requirements," he said. "Understanding PACS performance bottlenecks can help administrators plan for growth and ensure the satisfaction of the user."

PACSPulse is an open source project, provided free at http://pacspulse.sourceforge.net.