2004 November

Health Imaging & IT followed PACS Administrator Kelly Murphy through a never-typical day at Baylor Medical Center at Garland (Texas)—logging many finger strokes fixing misgenerated orders and image artifacts and using up some shoe leather to solve a few

Affordability and diagnostic confidence have allowed LCDs to overtake sales of CRTs. Three and 5 megapixel LCDs are expanding into more-demanding mammography applications, while diagnostic capability studies are underway for even more affordable 1 and 2 m

Wireless networks are proliferating around large healthcare enterprises and small physicians' offices. The possibilities - and benefits - are nearly endless, provided you keep functionality, workflow and security in mind.

Redundancy is the name of the game for facilities planning for network disaster recovery. Five facilities report in on details of their plans that work.

The downs are outdoing the ups in radiology and radiation oncology reimbursement these days, but smart administrators can find some ways around the numbers.

Going forward, advancement in molecular imaging will hinge on developing more highly targeted radiopharmaceuticals, fine-tuning PET/CT and SPECT/CT scanners to maximize them and employing an IT strategy to manage the plethora of clinical images and data g

Managing, distributing, navigating and storing molecular imaging studies are the next tasks to conquer in taking full advantage of these complex images. Three clinical sites share their strategies for success.

Whether you've been to RSNA only once, just heard about it or are getting your 25-year pin this year, this annual event is just that, an event. RSNA is all about making connections - with colleagues, friends and even competitors. And it is now about connecting your imaging devices and information systems, too.

The cooperation between the DICOM and HL7 standardization organization has been significantly improved over the past several years. There is a joint DICOM/HL7 working group, a.k.a. WG 20 for DICOM or for HL7, the Imaging and Integration Special Interest Group, that meets at every HL7 event (which is typically three times a year) to work on interfacing issues between both communication standards.

In the eyes of radiologists, (the) image is everything. But to everyone else involved in the care of patients, the work that occurs before, during, and after the evaluation of the images is everything. Scheduling, patient info, orders, referrals, billing, reports - all depend on accurate and timely information that must be tightly linked to the images and patient record. Yes, all data must be secure and private, while remaining instantly accessible.